[meteorite-list] NASA Prepares for First Interplanetary CubeSats

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4622

NASA Prepares for First Interplanetary CubeSats
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jun 12, 2015

When NASA launches its next mission on the journey to Mars - a stationary 
lander in 2016 - the flight will include two CubeSats. This will be the 
first time CubeSats have flown in deep space. If this flyby demonstration 
is successful, the technology will provide NASA the ability to quickly 
transmit status information about the main spacecraft after it lands on 
Mars.

The twin communications-relay CubeSats, being built by NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory, Pasadena, California, constitute a technology demonstration 
called Mars Cube One (MarCO). CubeSats are a class of spacecraft based 
on a standardized small size and modular use of off-the-shelf technologies. 
Many have been made by university students, and dozens have been launched 
into Earth orbit using extra payload mass available on launches of larger 
spacecraft.

The basic CubeSat unit is a box roughly 4 inches (10 centimeters) square. 
Larger CubeSats are multiples of that unit. MarCO's design is a six-unit 
CubeSat - about the size of a briefcase -- with a stowed size of about 
14.4 inches (36.6 centimeters) by 9.5 inches (24.3 centimeters) by 4.6 
inches (11.8 centimeters).

MarCO will launch in March 2016 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, 
on the same United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket as NASA's Interior Exploration 
using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander. 
InSight is NASA's first mission devoted to understanding the interior 
structure of the Red Planet. MarCO will fly by Mars while InSight is landing, 
in September 2016.

"MarCO is an experimental capability that has been added to the InSight 
mission, but is not needed for mission success," said Jim Green, director 
of NASA's planetary science division at the agency's headquarters in Washington. 
"MarCO will fly independently to Mars."

During InSight's entry, descent and landing (EDL) operations on Sept. 
28, 2016, the lander will transmit information in the UHF radio band to 
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) flying overhead. MRO will forward 
EDL information to Earth using a radio frequency in the X band, but cannot 
simultaneously receive information over one band while transmitting on 
another. Confirmation of a successful landing could be received by the 
orbiter more than an hour before it's relayed to Earth.

MarCO's softball-size radio provides both UHF (receive only) and X-band 
(receive and transmit) functions capable of immediately relaying information 
received over UHF.

The two CubeSats will separate from the Atlas V booster after launch and 
travel along their own trajectories to the Red Planet. After release from 
the launch vehicle, MarCO's first challenges are to deploy two radio antennas 
and two solar panels. The high-gain, X-band antenna is a flat panel engineered 
to direct radio waves the way a parabolic dish antenna does. MarCO will 
be navigated to Mars independently of the InSight spacecraft, with its 
own course adjustments on the way.

Ultimately, if the MarCO demonstration mission succeeds, it could allow 
for a "bring-your-own" communications relay option for use by future Mars 
missions in the critical few minutes between Martian atmospheric entry 
and touchdown.

By verifying CubeSats are a viable technology for interplanetary missions, 
and feasible on a short development timeline, this technology demonstration 
could lead to many other applications to explore and study our solar system.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, 
manages MarCO, InSight and MRO for NASA's Science Mission Directorate 
in Washington. Technology suppliers for MarCO include: Blue Canyon Technologies 
of Boulder, Colorado, for the attitude-control system; VACCO Industries 
of South El Monte, California, for the propulsion system; AstroDev of 
Ann Arbor, Michigan, for electronics; MMA Design LLC, also of Boulder, 
for solar arrays; and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc., a Terran Orbital 
Company in San Luis Obispo, California, for the CubeSat dispenser system.

For information about MarCO, visit:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco.php

For information about InSight, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/insight

Learn more about NASA's journey to Mars at:

http://www.nasa.gov/content/journey-to-mars-overview


Media Contact

Guy Webster 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

2015-200