NASA to Launch Deep Space CubeSats
Hello
reader!
Below is
an article published in the day (03/04) in the "Satellite Arc" site,
noting that NASA will launch CubeSats of Deep Space.
Duda
Falcão
News
NASA to
Launch Deep Space CubeSats
By Doug Messier
April 3,
2015, 2:51 pm
(Credit:
NASA)
A concept image of the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout mission,
one of 11 missions that will be secondary payloads to the
first test flight of
NASA’s Space Launch System.
|
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — When NASA’s new Space Launch
System (SLS)
launches on its first flight, it will be doing some serious multi-tasking. Not
only will Exploration Mission-1 test the performance of SLS and its integration
with the Orion spacecraft – the agency plans to use its
massive lift capability to carry nearly a dozen nano-satellites to conduct
science experiments beyond low Earth orbit.
NASA’s newest rocket will launch Orion on an uncrewed
test flight to a distant retrograde orbit around the moon. Tucked inside the
stage adapter — the ring connecting Orion to the top propulsion stage of the
SLS — will be 11 self-contained small satellites, each about the size of a
large shoebox.
“NASA is taking advantage of a great opportunity to
conduct more science beyond our primary focus of this mission,” said Jody
Singer manager of the Flight Programs and Partnerships Office at the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “While this new vehicle will enable
missions beyond Earth orbit, we’re taking steps to increase the scientific and
exploration capability of SLS by accommodating small, CubeSat-class payloads.”
About 10 minutes after Orion and its service module
escape the pull of Earth’s gravity, the two will disconnect and Orion will
proceed toward the moon. Once Orion is a safe distance away, the small payloads
will begin to be deployed, all at various times during the flight depending on
the particular missions.
These CubeSats are small nano-satellites designed to
be efficient and versatile. The masses of these secondary payloads are light —
no heavier than 30 pounds (14 kilograms) — and will not require any extra power
from the vehicle to function. They will essentially piggyback on the SLS
flight, providing what otherwise would be costly access to deep space.
“We are expanding the capabilities of this particular
SLS test flight,” said Joseph Pelfrey, deputy manager of the Exploration and
Space Transportation Development Office at Marshall. “The rocket will be the
strongest ever built by NASA and we want to take advantage of that design.
Flying secondary payloads is something we plan to do for missions to come and
provide the science community an opportunity they haven’t had before.”
The dispensers on the adapter ring will be built with
commercially available materials. No pyrotechnic devices will be a part of the
payloads and each will be ejected with a spring mechanism – similar to opening
a lid on a toy jack-in-the-box.
The principal investigators and engineers for the
payloads will work with the secondary payload integration team to develop
mission-specific requirements and verify interfacing and safety requirements
are met. Multiple organizations at NASA Headquarters in Washington are
soliciting inputs for the available EM-1 secondary payload slots, and three
have already been selected for further development: Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA)
Scout, Lunar Flashlight and BioSentinel.
Both NEA Scout and Lunar Flashlight involve Marshall
engineering and science teams, while BioSentinel is managed by NASA’s Ames
Research Center in California.
NEA Scout, using solar sail propulsion, will fly by a
small asteroid, taking pictures and making observations that will enhance the
current understanding of an the asteroid environment and will yield key
information for future astronauts exploring an asteroid.
“A solar sail works best when deployed in deep space
and SLS will get us there,” said Les Johnson, principal investigator for NEA
Scout at Marshall. “It will take us out of Earth orbit and to interplanetary
space — where we need to be to deploy the solar sail. It’s a perfect ride to
begin our mission.”
NASA’s Lunar Flashlight will scout for locations on
the lunar surface that are rich in resources that, once broken down into their
component molecules, could be used in future exploration, such as building
materials, propellant, oxygen and water. Lunar Flashlight will use a large
solar sail, similar to the NEA Scout sail, to reflect sunlight and illuminate
the moon’s permanently shadowed craters and then the science instruments will
measure the surface water ice.
BioSentinel will use yeast to detect, measure, and
compare the impact of deep space radiation on living organisms over long
durations beyond Low-Earth Orbit, which will help us understand the effects of
the deep space environment on biological systems as we plan to send humans
farther into space than ever before. The BioSentinel mission will be the first
time living organisms have traveled to deep space in over 40 years and the
spacecraft will operate in the deep space radiation environment throughout its
18-month mission.
Exploration Mission-1 will serve as a proving ground
for the integrated Orion spacecraft and SLS, allowing designers to steadily
move forward with development of the vehicle and prove the systems’ ability to
carry and deploy experiments yielding invaluable science results.
Source: Website Parabolic Arc - http://www.parabolicarc.com/
Comentário: Pois é leitor, note neste artigo as
possibilidades desta tecnologia de cubesats que a NASA, com competência e
extrema visão, está para explorar nos próximos anos. Espero que este artigo
venha estimular os nascentes grupos que trabalham com este tipo de tecnologia
no Brasil a desenvolverem missões cada vez mais ousadas e significativas para a Astronáutica Brasileira.
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