Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM
Monday, March 15, 2010 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium
Daniel Andrews
"Project Overview and Lessons Learned from the LCROSS Mission"
ABSTRACT -- The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on June 18, 2009. LCROSS was selected by NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) as a $79M project with approximately 31 months to move from concept to launch. NASA Ames Research Center and its industry partner, Northrop-Grumman, initiated the LCROSS Project two years after LRO had started. However, LCORSS had to be completed in time to launch on the same launch vehicle.
While the scientific purpose of the LCROSS mission was to determine the presence of water-ice in a permanently-shadowed crater on the south pole of the moon, an equally important purpose was to be a pioneer for future low-cost, quick-turnaround, risk-tolerant small satellite NASA missions. Recent strategic changes in the Agency point to further interest in this class of mission. This presentation will provide an overview of the LCROSS mission, and summarize a few of the lessons learned from the LCROSS Project.
SPEAKER -- Daniel Andrews joined NASA-Ames Research Center in 1987 and has been the Project Manager for LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite), which just successfully discovered water on the moon! This mission was a pathfinder for low-cost, risk-tolerant, quick turn-around missions within NASA. Prior to his assignment on LCROSS, Mr. Andrews was the Ames Deputy Project Manager for the Prometheus Project, guiding work at Ames on critical re-entry aeroshell designs and software code optimizations on this JPL-led mission. This followed on the heels of his management of the Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) Project, an autonomous, free-flying robot assistant for astronauts. This novel, innovative project garnered a great deal of popular press, with articles in Newsweek, Popular Science, and Air & Space Magazine, and was named one of the "50 Best Robots Ever" in Wired Magazine. Mr. Andrews received his MSME from Stanford University and a BSEE degree from San Jose State University. He lives in California with his wife and three children.