First CubeSats Loaded onto Artemis I Mission by NASA
Dubbed “Lunar IceCube” Satellite
Kentucky’s Morehead State University has a “cube” satellite (CubeSat) loaded onto NASA’s Artemis I Mission payload.
The relatively small satellite, weighing about 30 pounds and named “Lunar IceCube” was developed by a six-member team including Morehead Space Center participants.
“Lunar IceCube will search for water ice and other resources from above the surface of the Moon.
“It was developed by:
– Morehead State University in Kentucky,
– Busek Space Propulsion and Systems of Massachusetts,
– NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
– Maryland,
– NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL); and,
– NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in Fairmont, West Virginia.
“Once deployed, the CubeSat will take up to nine months to arrive at its destination and begin orbiting the Moon.
“Using state-of-the-art miniature electric thrusters for propulsion and relying on gravity assists from Earth and the Moon, Lunar IceCube will search for water and other materials in ice, liquid, or vapor states that may be useful for future exploration missions.
“Once in orbit, Lunar IceCube’s mission could last one to six months and the ground station at Morehead State will be used to track the CubeSat for the duration of the mission.” [Quoted material from NASA blog cited below.]
Small satellites about the size of a large shoebox will be released by NASA’s Artemis I Mission to prepare the way for more exploration of the Moon and Mars.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2021/07/20/first-cubesats-aboard-for-artemis-i-mission/
https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/tag/lunar-icecube/
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