National Environmental Policy Act; Stardust mission

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[Notice 98-062]

National Environmental Policy Act; Stardust mission

AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION: Finding of no significant impact.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of

1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.), the Council on

Environmental Quality (CEQ) Regulations for Implementing the Procedural

Provisions of NEPA (40 CFR parts 1500-1508), and NASA policy and

procedures (14 CFR part 1216 subpart 1216.3), NASA has made a finding

of no significant impact (FONSI) with respect to the proposed Stardust

mission, which would involve a flight to the comet 81-P/Wild-2 and

return of cometary and interstellar dust samples to Earth. The baseline

mission calls for the Stardust spacecraft to be launched aboard a Delta

II 7426 from Cape Canaveral Air Station (CCAS), Florida, in February

1999, and to return the sample return canister (SRC) to Utah Test and

Training Range (UTTR) approximately 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest

of Salt Lake City, Utah in January 2006.

DATE: Comments in response to this notice must be provided in writing

to NASA on or before June 8, 1998.

ADDRESSES: Comments in response to this FONSI should be addressed to

Mr. Mark Dahl, NASA Headquarters, Code SD, 300 E Street SW, Washington,

DC 20546. The Environmental Assessment (EA) prepared for the Stardust

mission which supports this FONSI may be reviewed at:

(a) NASA Headquarters, Library, Room 1J20, 300 E Street SW,

Washington, DC 20546

(b) NASA, Spaceport USA, Room 2001, John F. Kennedy Space Center,

Florida, 32899 (407-867-2622). Please call Lisa Fowler beforehand at

407-867-2468 so that arrangements can be made.

(c) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Visitors Lobby, Building 249, 4800

Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (818-354-5179)

The EA may also be examined at the following NASA locations by

contacting the pertinent Freedom of Information Act Office:

(d) NASA, Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035 (415-604-

4191)

(e) NASA, Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA 93523 (805-

258-2663)

(f) NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (301-

483-6255)

(g) NASA, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058 (281-483-8612)

(h) NASA, Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23665 (757-864-2497)

(i) NASA, Lewis Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland,

OH 44135 (216-433-2755)

(j) NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812 (256-

544-5549)

(k) NASA, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529 (601-688-2164)

A limited number of copies of the EA are available for persons

wishing a copy by contacting Mr. Dahl, at the address or telephone

number indicated herein.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark Dahl, 202-358-1544.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: NASA has reviewed the EA prepared for the

Stardust mission and has determined that it represents an accurate and

adequate analysis of the scope and level of associated environmental

impacts. The EA is hereby incorporated by reference in this FONSI.

NASA is proposing to launch the Stardust mission, which would

deliver a single spacecraft within 150 to 1000 kilometers (km) (93 to

620 miles [mi]) of the 81-P/Wild-2 comet nucleus during a flyby in 2004

to gather 1000 dust particles from the comet's coma. The proposed

action calls for using a Delta II 7426 launch vehicle with a Star 37FM

upper stage to inject the Stardust spacecraft into its initial

heliocentric orbit in February 1999. The proposed mission design calls

for the Stardust spacecraft to swing by Earth once during its seven-

year tour. This gravity assist would allow the spacecraft to gain the

additional energy required to intercept the comet Wild-2. During its

flight, Stardust would transmit pictures of the Earth and Moon taken

during the Earth swingby, transmit pictures of the comet nucleus and

coma taken during comet encounter, nondestructively capture

interstellar and cometary dust particles, and return these samples to

Earth for study by the international scientific community. Neither the

spacecraft nor the return canister would carry radioactive material.

The primary science objective for the Stardust mission is to non-

destructively collect comet dust particles greater than 15 microns

(m) in size, at an encounter velocity of less than 6.5 km/

second (s) (4 mi/s), and return them to Earth for scientific study.

Secondary and tertiary scientific objectives include the collection

of intact particles from the Interstellar Dust Stream impinging into

our solar system; provide multiple images of Wild-2, with ten times the

resolution of any comet image to date, taken within 2000 km (1240 mi)

of the comet nucleus; provide in-situ participle analysis capable of

resolving abundant elements in comentary fields for dust participles

during the coma fly-through; provide in-situ participle analysis for

interstellar dust particles and planetary dust; collect comet coma

molecules and return them to Earth; provide dust flux

[[Page 25237]]

measurement of participles having a mass less than 1 gram; and measure

the dust mass flux, number of large participles, and comet mass upper

limit. The Stardust mission is proposed to gather interstellar and

cometary material and return it to Earth where the world scientific

community can systematically analyze it with powerful research

equipment in their laboratories.

Samples from Wild-2 would offer a glimpse of the best preserved

fundamental building blocks out of which our Solar System formed. In

addition, during its first two orbits about the Sun on its way to Wild-

2, the Stardust spacecraft would collect approximately 100 interstellar

dust participles. This would provide the international scientific

community its first opportunity to collect and analyze these

interstellar dust grains.

Alternatives that were evaluated include: (1) No-Action (i.e., no

Stardust mission); (2) launch vehicles options, including the Space

Shuttle, Taurus, and Atlas configurations, as well as other Delta

configurations; and (3) alternative landing sites. Failure to undertake

the Stardust mission would disrupt the execution of NASA's Solar System

Exploration Program as defined by the Agency's Solar System Exploration

Committee. The scientific value of having actual bona-fide, relatively

pristine comet samples is high. While environmental impacts would be

avoided by cancellation of the proposed mission, the loss of the

scientific knowledge and database from carrying out the mission could

be substantial. Of the launch vehicles evaluated, the Delta II 7426/

Star 37 FM most closely matches the Stardust mission requirements, and

minimizes adverse environmental impacts within the cost constraints of

this Discovery Mission.

Expected impacts to the human environment associated with the

mission arise almost entirety from the normal launch of the Delta II

7426, and to a much lesser extent, the entry, descent, landing, and

recovery operations of the sample return. Air emissions from the

exhaust produced by the solid propellant graphite epoxy motors (GEMs)

and liquid first stage primarily include carbon monoxide, hydrochloric

acid, aluminum oxide in soluble and insoluble forms, carbon dioxide,

and deluge water mixed with propellant by-products. Air impacts will be

short-term and not substantial. Short-term water quality and noise

impacts, as well as short-term effects on wetlands, plants, and

animals, would occur in the vicinity of the launch complex. These

short-term impacts are of a nature to be self-correcting, and none of

these effects would be substantial. There could be no impact on

threatened or endangered species or critical habitat, cultural

resources, or floodplains at or in the vicinity of CCAS. Accident

scenarios have also been addressed and would not result in substantial

environmental impacts.

The second stage would be ignited at an altitude of 118 kilometers

(74 miles), which is in the ionosphere. Although the second stage would

achieve orbit, its orbital decay time would fall below the limit NASA

has set for orbital debris consideration. After burning its propellant

to depletion, the second stage would remain in low Earth orbit (LEO)

until its orbit eventually decayed. The second stage is designed to

burn up as it reenters Earth's atmosphere. The Stardust Project will

follow the NASA guidelines regarding orbital debris and minimizing the

risk for uncontrolled reentry into the Earth's atmosphere.

The level and scope of environmental impacts associated with the

launch of the Delta II 7426 vehicle are well within the envelope of

impacts that have been addressed in previous FONSIs concerning other

launch vehicles and spacecraft.

At capture, the comet and interstellar dust particles would be

traveling at very high speed relative to the spacecraft collector and

would be stopped in 1 to 3 centimeters (cm) of glass (aerogel) within

microseconds. The particles would undergo extreme heating during impact

and capture. This is a much more severe environment than any known

sterilization techniques these particles might be subjected to on

Earth. Because there is little possibility of biological contamination

during sample collection, and thus an insignificant chance of returning

any living organism to Earth (known as back-contamination), the

Stardust project has requested and received certification from NASA's

Planetary Protection Officer as a Planetary Protection Category V

mission, ``Unrestricted Earth Return,'' for the inbound mission phase.

Upper altitude emissions associated with reentry of the sample

return capsule (SRC) would include ablation products of the thermal

protection system on the forebody. The SRC would enter the earth's

atmosphere directly above UTTR's South Range with a velocity of

approximately 13 km/s (8 mi/s). It would decelerate to 600 meters/s (m/

s) (1962 fee/s [ft/s]) in two minutes. The material baselined to be

used for the forebody heatshield is Phenolic Impregnated Ceramic

Ablator (PICA), recently developed at NASA's Ames Research Center. Due

to friction, the peak heating would occur at approximately 54 seconds

after reentry begins, which corresponds to an altitude of approximately

60 km (196,860 ft) above the earth. The ablation would continue for

about twenty seconds. Models conservatively predict that less than 22

percent of the total PICA material would ablate during reentry, and

that ablation would cease at approximately 46.5 km (152,566 ft) above

the earth. The total mass of the PICA material would be about 8.5 kg

(18.7 pounds [lb]); of this, a maximum of 1.86 kg (4.09 lb) would be

ablated during reentry. The chemical species produced during ablation

would be dissipated in the shock wave behind the SRC. Two of the

chemical species produced in small amounts during ablation, hydrogen

cyanide and cyanide (37 grams [g] and 149 g, respectively), are

considered to be acutely toxic to humans when inhaled. The ablation

process and thus the production of these species would cease more than

46 km (150,000 ft) above the earth. Therefore, these concentrations

would disperse in the large volume of air in the upper atmosphere and

would not constitute a danger to health or life on earth. The SRC

heatshield would be rapidly cooling during the subsonic portion of the

descent, and would not be emitting into the lower atmosphere.

UTTR is primarily used by the U.S. Air Force as a bombing and

artillery test and training range. The entry, descent, landing, and

recovery operations for the 42.6 kilogram (93.7 lb) SRC would be well

within the bounds of the day-to-day operations carried on at UTTR.

There would be no impact on threatened or endangered species or

critical habitat, cultural resources, wetlands or floodplains at UTTR.

Off-nominal recovery scenarios have also been addressed. No other

impacts of potential environmental concern have been identified.

On the basis of the Stardust EA, NASA has determined that the

environmental impacts associated with the mission would not

individually or cumulatively have a significant impact on the quality

of the human environment. NASA will take no final action prior to the

expiration of the 30-day comment period.

Earle K. Huckins III,

Deputy Associate Administrator for Space Science.

[FR Doc. 98-12155 Filed 5-6-98; 8:45 am]

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