Compass (often stylized as COMPASS), is a collaborative engineering team founded in 2006 in support of the LSAM (Lunar Surface Access Module) Design Study at
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's
Glenn Research Center
NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park, Ohio, Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a s ...
in
Cleveland
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
Ohio
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. The team primarily performs integrated vehicle systems analyses. The team is a logical extension of
Glenn Glenn may refer to:
Name or surname
* Glenn (name)
* John Glenn, U.S. astronaut
Cultivars
* Glenn (mango)
* a 6-row barley variety
Places
In the United States:
* Glenn, California
* Glenn County, California
* Glenn, Georgia, a settlement i ...
's long history of analysis and design of spacecraft. Compass conducts "studies," in which the team receives a request from a contractor to analyze a space system design. The group reviews the parameters of the design, conducts simulations, details the design, and drafts a final report. Working in real time among engineers and scientists with a wide breadth of experience allows designs to come together quite rapidly. Compass designs spacecraft with lofty goals in mind; many of their projects seem like they have come out of a sci-fi film. An example of this is a nuclear-powered robot designed to burrow into Europa.
Early success of the team allows it to continue to produce preliminary designs of spacecraft. The name "Compass" was originally based on an acronym that has since been deprecated (Collaborative Modeling for the Parametric Assessment of Space Systems).
History
The Compass team shares many similarities with the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...
's Team X group and the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
Goddard Spaceflight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...
Integrated Design Center Team The computer program GLIDE was designed internally to support SSH data transfer across firewalls, and greatly supports the current capability of the team. The team formally became Compass in 2006 as a response to a multi-center Lunar Lander Concept Design study led by the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
Johnson Space Center
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...
(JSC).
Projects
* Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), originally based on a Compass design in 2010. A lightweight rocket has a launch platform on top of it. Samples from the surface of Mars are transported into orbit by the rocket, where a ship can collect them and return them to Earth.
*
Nuclear electric propulsion spacecraft, developed in 2012.
The idea is that the spacecraft could transport a team of 6 astronauts into orbit around Mars for 400 days, and then return them to Earth. An electric ion thruster, powered by a 2.5 megawatt nuclear reactor, would serve as the propulsion system
* Europa Cryobot was designed to tunnel deep through the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa to investigate life that might exist in the liquid ocean that lies underneath
References
{{reflist
NASA