{"id":37893,"date":"2022-10-26T08:34:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T08:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=113039"},"modified":"2022-10-26T08:51:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T08:51:12","slug":"how-artemis-is-cubesats-will-photograph-and-analyse-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/how-artemis-is-cubesats-will-photograph-and-analyse-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"How Artemis I\u2019s CubeSats will photograph and analyse the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Shaoni Bhattacharya\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 26 October 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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NASA\u2019s Artemis I mission is the first step towards returning human beings to the Moon.<\/p>\n

The Artemis programme<\/a> has most spaceflight fans on the edge of their seat: it marks a new era in crewed spaceflight and, if all goes to plan, will see the establishment of a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

When Artemis I finally launches<\/a>, it will have no human crew, but there are plenty of other interesting passengers going along for the ride.<\/p>\n

One of Artemis I\u2019s payloads will be 10 shoebox-sized CubeSats.<\/span><\/p>\n

We spoke to <\/span>Andres Martinez, programme executive for NASA\u2019s Small Spacecrafts, to find out more.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Credit: Andres Martinez<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

How many CubeSats are on board Artemis I?<\/b><\/h3>\n

There are 10 CubeSats installed alongside Artemis I. 7 of them are sponsored by NASA; 4 are under my responsibility.<\/p>\n

We also have three international CubeSats aboard.<\/p>\n

When you see the size of these CubeSats, and look into the incredible science that we\u2019re going to be conducting, your first reaction is \u2018no way!\u2019, because they\u2019re the size of a shoebox.<\/p>\n

What sort of science will your 4 CubeSats be conducting?<\/b><\/h3>\n

The first is called Lunar IceCube and is led by Morehead State University in eastern Kentucky, with 100 university students participating.<\/p>\n

Lunar IceCube will orbit the Moon for six months and has an incredible infrared spectrometer. It will document where water is on the Moon and its daily movement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second one, LunIR, is led by Lockheed Martin. It doesn\u2019t have any propulsion, but will travel on a ballistic trajectory straight to the Moon.<\/p>\n

Over the 72 minutes that it goes by the Moon it\u2019s going to take some incredible high-resolution images with a very sophisticated infrared instrument.<\/p>\n

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CubeSats being installed inside the SLS\u2019s Orion Stage Adapter in 2021. Credit: NASA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

The third is the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, led by Marshall Space Flight Center.<\/p>\n

It will rendezvous with an asteroid<\/a>, take images and send those back to us. It will use a 80m2<\/sup> solar sail \u2013 the size of a bus \u2013 as its main propulsion system.<\/p>\n

The target asteroid is about the size of a Volkswagen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fourth mission is BioSentinel, led by Ames, which will send live biology further into space than ever before, namely yeast.<\/p>\n

We are going to put BioSentinel in a heliocentric orbit, trailing behind Earth.<\/p>\n

As we expect solar events to take place, it will go through very harmful radiation and we\u2019re going to document the effects on live organisms.<\/p>\n