International Lunar Network (ILN)

cIclops · 2008-05-11 02:08:05

Solicitation - 29 Apr 2008

The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has directed the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) to implement one of what is expected to be a series of missions to put in place an International Lunar Network (ILN). Hence, the Government is requesting information pertaining to existing subsystems and/or other component elements that are capable of transporting and delivering science instrument packages to the lunar surface. The term “existing” refers to hardware development levels equivalent to flight spares, engineering units, and/or high technology readiness level (TRL3 or greater) hardware that could be flight qualified and flown as part of the ILN, anticipated for launch in the 2012-2014 time-frame. In the event that flight spares or engineering units are not available, the Government is also interested in “build to print” or “scaleable” possibilities from existing flight hardware. Hardware that would deliver science instrument packages to the lunar surface, hereafter referred to as “landers”, would include such things as penetrators and hard or soft landers. The Government is also interested in other innovative existing hardware solutions extensible to the placement of science instrument packages on the lunar surface.
The short development schedule and limited budget preclude extensive lander or technology development. Hence, NASA mission planners must focus on mature, functioning hardware, including flight spares from other missions, engineering units of existing flight hardware, or high TRL hardware that can easily be flight qualified, “built to print”, or that require limited additional development. Please see the document (NPR 7120.8 App J - TRL Definitions.pdf) accompanying this RFI on FedBizOpps for definitions of hardware and technology readiness levels.
The ILN represents a series of US and International Partner provided surface packages (sensing nodes), which act as common science nodes in a lunar geophysical network that will address Agency science goals. The NASA SMD expects that each node in ILN will provide a minimum core suite of two instruments and will include a lander to deliver these nodes to the lunar surface. Additional measurements and/or instruments may be accommodated provided adequate mass, power and budget margins exist. The mission addressed by this RFI encompasses two landers (i.e., anchor nodes). These first two nodes of the ILN will likely be placed at high lunar latitudes.
The landers are expected to be small. For planning and RFI purposes, the following represent approximate anticipated payload/instrument accommodation considerations and constraints that will be used to assess lander capability and sizing applicability.
Mass: 25-50 kg Power: 1 W continuous, 2 W peak G-Load: 40 g Data Rate: 100 Mbits per Earth day (transmitted or stored)

Proposed in the Lunar Science program

cIclops · 2008-05-25 03:33:48

The International Lunar Network

by Amir Alexander
May 12, 2008
Taking advantage of the current focus on lunar exploration, NASA is leading an international effort to establish a network of geophysical monitoring stations on the Moon. The venture, known as the "International Lunar Network," or ILN for short, seeks to place between 4 and 8 such bases at selected locations on the Moon in the next decade. Each of the nodes will be launched and operated by different national space agencies, but all will work together as a unified monitoring network. According to Jim Green, director of NASA's Division of Planetary Science, this model of international cooperation could then serve as a template for a similar venture on Mars.

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#1 2008-05-11 02:08:05

Re: International Lunar Network (ILN)

#2 2008-05-25 03:33:48

Re: International Lunar Network (ILN)

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