NASA’s Artemis program is the new Apollo era for humanity. After 50 years, humankind returns to make the Moon a new home. Artemis-I is set to launch on the 23rd of September after several unsuccessful attempts on the 29th of August, then on the 3rd of September due to engine bleed test failure and leakages from liquid hydrogen piping towards engines. Why man is going back to the Moon after so many years is a question everyone asks. Space exploration is starting again because of innovation in technology, commercialization, and of course, the intrinsically perturbed nature of man. Artemis is not an ordinary moon landing mission but a great leap for humanity to leave the Earth for good. This article elaborates the research objectives associated with this Artemis-I mission, from deep space’s radiation effects to finding suitable shelter on the Lunar surface. Ten small cubic satellites, called CubeSat, onboard Orion spacecraft Stage Adapter as a secondary payload will do the actual research work. This is a distinguished objective of Artemis-I.
The article explore the objectives and instruments installed on these miniature satellites designed by various universities, space agencies, NASA itself, and most importantly, the citizen scientists.
What is a CubeSat?
A CubeSat is a cubic shape satellite or nanosatellite with defined dimensions and instruments according to its objectives. It lies in the category of nanosatellites. Normally, the briefcase or shoebox-sized satellite names are used for these CubeSats. Its size is 1U (one unit), 1.5U, 3U, 6U, etc. 1U has dimensions 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. Many multiples of 1U CubeSat are used. Almost all the CubeSats onboard are of 6U size (10cm x 20cm x 30cm). In the following text, details about the ten CubeSats onboard Artemis-I are elaborated.
1. BioSentinel
The most crucial thing in space is the level of radiation an astronaut will receive in deep space. Recently Chinese lunar lander Change 4 has given a value of 1369uS/day on the Moon; an astronaut will receive a moonwalk outside the habitat. In this BioSentinel CubeSat, yeast is used as a test organism for radiation effects on DNA. The microfluidics card that contains yeast test wells is shown in the image below. Radiation damages the DNA structure, and yeast is chosen because it is well studied and behaves similarly to human DNA for auto repair. It will be re-hydrated (to grow) after crossing the Earth’s magnetosphere. This CubeSat will do a flyby of the Moon and find its way to orbit the Sun into a heliocentric orbit. This 13 kg satellite will conduct the research for 18 months. This is a comparative study on three places with similar samples of yeast. One on the ground, 2nd on ISS, and 3rd on the BioSentinel CubeSat. This study will compare the radiation effects on DNA damage and repair based on different gravity and radiation levels.
2. CuSP ( Solar Particle detection)
Solar particles are dangerous things to encounter in space. Earth and outer space receive most solar wind and charged particles that pose a significant danger to satellites, communication, and power grids on the ground.
CuSP CubeSat : NASA
This 6U CubeSat has three instruments onboard for measuring the space environment. One is (Suprathermal Ion Spectrograph) for low-energy particles, the second (Miniaturized Electron and Proton Telescope) for high-energy particles, and the third (Vector Helium Magnetometer) is for magnetic field strength and direction.
3. Team Miles
This is the most innovative and exciting CubeSat to talk about. It is designed by the citizen scientists of Miles Space and Fluid & Reason LLC after winning a spot for a satellite in NASA’s CubeQuest competition. This CubeSat will test a new propulsion system, the plasma iodine thrusters, in which low-frequency electromagnetic waves are used for spacecraft propulsion. 2nd objective of this CubeSat is to test the Software-defined Radio (SDR) communication in S-Band from about 4 million kilometers from Earth. intended to cover about 60-90 million Km on a trajectory towards Mars.
Team Miles CubeSat: Miles Space
4. ArgoMoon
Indeed, this is a historic mission for space exploration, and we need to keep a record of this Giant Leap for humanity. This CubeSat will do the cameraman’s job. It is designed by the Italian space agency (ASI), and it will be 1st European CubeSat that will leave the orbit of Earth into deep space. It will take images of 2nd stage propulsion (Interim cryogenic propulsion system) of the moon rocket SLS. It will also take images of the deployment of
ArgoMoon CubeSat: Italian Space Agency ASI
other payloads for historical record keeping as the 2nd stage of SLS cannot do the telemetry during and after the separation until two hours. That’s why Argotec (an Italian company) designed this CubeSat to fill the gap.
5. EQUULEUS
EQUilibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U Spacecraft was designed by the Japanese Space agency JAXA in collaboration with the University of Tokyo. Japanese agency is known for designing missions of space maneuvering and propulsion systems.
EQUULEUS: JAXA and Tokyo University
This 6U CubeSat has three instruments onboard for trajectory control technology that will use the Earth-Moon-Sun dynamics for better use of gravitational assist for spacecraft propulsion. The objective is to reduce the propellant used by water vapors heated by the intrinsic heat from electronics onboard. AQUARIUS (propulsion system) uses 1.5 kg of water as a propellant for attitude control. It will reach the Earth-Moon liberation point. This satellite has three main instruments onboard; one is a UV imager (PHOENIX), a dust detector (i.e., impact dust), and a camera that can detect the impact flashes (of asteroids and meteorites). It will measure the radiation around the Earth at different distances.
6. LunaH-Map
Designed and developed by Arizona State University and funded by NASA, this lunar (polar) orbiter satellite has a primary objective of detecting and mapping the water ice (actually Hydrogen-rich compounds) near the southern pole, where permanently shadowed regions are located. Water deposits that already had been identified by various missions will get confirmation through this mapping. It will perform this mapping using neutron spectroscopy in which epithermal neutrons (higher energy than thermal neutrons) create luminescence bounced off the water molecules.
LunarH-Map: NASA/ASU
It will map the surface from 8–25 kilometers altitude (perilune) and relay data towards Earth every 3 to 5 days. Its projected lifetime is about two months until the solid iodine-based propellant runs out.
7. Lunar IceCube
This kind of geological surveyor of the Moon’s surface for different minerals distribution. This CubeSat from Morehead State University will find the water and other minerals (volatiles) by using spectral analysis of the moon regolith depending on the soil age, composition, and latitude on the Moon’s surface. The main instrument onboard IceCube is the Broadband InfraRed Compact High-resolution Explorer Spectrometer (BIRCHES). The Goddard Space Flight Center developed this instrument, and this is a miniature version of similar
Lunar IceCube illustration: Morehead State University
equipment used in the New Horizons (2006) spacecraft for Pluto. The same propulsion system equips it with the LunaH-Map CubeSat. Its orbit is highly elliptic with a perilune of 100 km. It will take about six months to complete the task.
8. LunIR ( Lunar IR imager)
They were designed and developed by Lockheed Martin and funded by NASA. The main instrument onboard is Mid-Way InfraRed (MWIR) sensor supported by a micro-cryocooler. Micro-cryocooler is a kind of refrigerator to cool the InfraRed imager as low as -234 F (-147C). It will capture the lunar surface for thermal characteristics on its flyby before going into deep space for some technology demonstration of the Mars mission. It will fill the knowledge gaps for long-duration missions like Mars in remote sensing areas, surface characterization, and site selection determination.
9. NEA Scout (Near Earth Asteroid Scout)
This is developed by the NASA’s Marshal Space Flight Center for scouting the minor asteroids. This is the first deep space mission to use the solar sail as propulsion. This racquetball court-size sail is thinner than human hair and made of an aluminum-coated plastic thin film. Photons of sunlight will constantly hit this sail and bounce off to give a gentle push to the spacecraft. It can reach significantly high speeds but needs time to reach that level of thrust. This propulsion is the best option for small-size crafts to avoid heavy propulsion. Another solar sail-based mission under development, Solar Cruiser (expected launch: 2025), from NASA with a much bigger solar sail. NEA Scout is a 2-year mission to take images (using NEACam) of an asteroid with 3840 x 3840 pixels. Low speed (30 m/s) solar sail will enable it to take high-resolution images within 100 km.
NEA Scout: Lockheed Martin/NASA
This will be the first time aThis will be the first time a100 m size asteroid is studied by a spacecraft. NASA will get the shape, orbit, physical properties, volume, dust, and debris around the asteroid.
10. OMOTENASHI
This is the 2nd CubeSat from JAXA and the University of Tokyo collaboration. OMOTENASHI stands for Outstanding Moon Exploration Technologies by Nano Semi-Hard Impactor. Landing on the Moon, of course, requires a lander. We need a compact, reliable, cost-effective lunar lander to land on the Moon’s surface. This CubeSat contains a lander with inflatable airbags, shock absorbers, and crushable material to test the lunar lander experiments with 50 m/s vertical speed and 100 m/s horizontal speed. There is an orbiter module that will guide the lander from orbit and a retro motor module with a 500-N solid rocket motor.
Saqib Ali
Saqib Ali is a content writer who has been writing about space science in various forums for the past few years. He has a master’s degree in computer science
Nice post. I learn something new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon every day. It will always be useful to read through articles from other writers and use a little something from other websites.
Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon on a daily basis. Its always useful to read content from other authors and practice something from their websites.
I have to thank you for the efforts youve put in writing this blog. Im hoping to check out the same high-grade blog posts by you later on as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own website now 😉
Hello there, I discovered your blog by means of Google whilst searching for a related subject, your web site
came up, it appears to be like great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hi there, simply changed into alert to your weblog via Google, and found that it’s truly
informative. I am gonna watch out for brussels. I’ll be
grateful when you proceed this in future. Many folks will probably be benefited out of your writing.
Cheers!