Adapter structure with 10 CubeSats installed on top of the Artemis moon rocket – Spaceflight Now
Workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center lifted the Orion stage adapter above the lunar Space Launch System rocket, adding the structure housing 10 CubeSat carpool payloads heading to deep space on the mission. Artemis 1. But three of the CubeSat missions missed their opportunity to fly in the first SLS mission.
Crews inside the vehicle assembly building at Kennedy lifted the Orion stage adapter above the space launch system rocket on Friday night, according to NASA spokeswoman Madison Tuttle.
Fitting the circular adapter structure is one of the final steps in stacking the SLS rocket inside High Bay 3 of the iconic assembly building. NASA’s human-rated lunar spacecraft Orion will be added to the rocket in the coming days to complete construction of the 322-foot-tall (98-meter) launcher for an unmanned test flight in lunar orbit and return to earth.
NASA has not announced a target launch date for the mission, known as Artemis 1, but it is expected to fly in early 2022. The test flight will pave the way for the next SLS / Orion mission, Artemis 2, to transport four astronauts into lunar orbit from 2023.
The goal of the Artemis program is to land astronauts on the moon’s surface later in the 2020s.
Last month, engineers completed testing of the space launch system with a mock-up of the Orion spacecraft. The tests included a verification of the umbilical release and retraction mechanisms of the mobile rocket launch tower, and integrated modal tests, which measured the resonant frequencies of the vehicle in response to external forces.
The modal tests gathered data on the rocket’s response to vibrations and jolts. The information will help the rocket guidance system to properly steer and control the vehicle in flight.
After the modal test was completed, ground crews from NASA and its subcontractor Jacobs removed the mass simulators for the Orion spacecraft and the Orion stage adapter, paving the way for the stacking of the material. flight.
The Orion Stage Adapter carries deployment mechanisms for the 10 Carpool payloads of the Artemis 1 mission. The CubeSats, each about the size of a small briefcase, weigh less than 30 pounds (14 kilograms).
NASA selected 13 CubeSat missions to launch on the first SLS flight in 2016 and 2017. At that time, NASA said it expected the first SLS test flight to be launched in late 2018.
Engineers have affixed CubeSat deployers inside the Orion stage adapter for carpool payloads, which will be released from the rocket after the SLS top stage releases the Orion spacecraft on its way to the moon.
But three of the smallsat missions encountered issues that caused them to miss their chance to fly on Artemis 1. Officials for two of the missions cited the coronavirus pandemic as contributing to the delays.
One of the missions that won’t launch with Artemis 1 is Lunar Flashlight, a small spacecraft developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission is designed to orbit the moon and shine infrared lasers in permanently shaded craters near the lunar poles. An instrument on the lunar flashlight will measure the light reflected from the lunar surface, revealing the composition and amount of water ice and other molecules hidden on the dark floors of the craters.
Ian O’Neill, a spokesperson for JPL, said NASA was exploring several short-term commercial launch opportunities for the Lunar Flashlight after determining that it would not be ready in time for launch on Artemis 1 .
“Due to significant issues during testing of the originally purchased Lunar Flashlight propulsion system, the mission shifted to developing an alternative,” O’Neill said in a written statement. “This change happened late in the project and delayed mission preparation. The combined business, academia and NASA team working on the new propulsion system were unable to continue making progress during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic as work on the launcher continued.
O’Neill said the Lunar Flashlight team has completed development of a “mission-ready” non-toxic propulsion system, and engineers continue to integrate and test the spacecraft for a future launch opportunity. .
The Cislunar Explorers mission, consisting of a pair of CubeSats, will also miss its turn on Artemis 1.
The two nanosatellites were developed at Cornell University to orbit the Moon and test a water-based propulsion system and optical navigation systems.
“Despite the tremendous efforts of the students and the team, the Cislunar Explorers mission was unable to deliver our spacecraft in time for Artemis 1,†wrote Curran Muhlberger, mission education advisor.
Responding to questions from Spaceflight Now, Muhlberger said the coronavirus pandemic was a “major factor” for Cislunar Explorers not to be ready in time for Artemis 1.
“Beyond the direct effect of the loss of access to our laboratory on campus for several months, the work stoppage came at a critical time for our integration and testing efforts,†he said. -he writes. “By the time work resumed, key team members had graduated, and while our new hires were very skilled, onboarding and team building still takes time.
“Turnover and knowledge transfer are always a challenge for student-led projects, and the pandemic has only exacerbated that,†he wrote.
The team also had “bad luck” with several elements of the mission, according to Muhlberger. Some problems arose during the integration of the CubeSats, requiring a “major disassembly to diagnose and repair”.
“Although we were ultimately able to assemble and verify the fit of our spacecraft, doing so on time required shortening our verification procedures,†he wrote. “Ultimately, we weren’t confident enough in the reliability of the spacecraft in this condition to be comfortable making a delivery.”
Muhlberger said the Cornell team will take some time to regroup before they look for another launch opportunity.
The third mission that was not ready in time for the launch of Artemis 1 is CU-E3 from the University of Colorado, Boulder. This CubeSat was intended to be launched on Artemis 1 and head into deep space, reaching a distance of over 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) from Earth to test a miniature planar antenna for communications in deep space.
Scott Palo, CU-E Principal Investigator3 mission, did not answer questions about the delay or future plans.
The 10 Carpool Missions delivered to Kennedy Space Center in time for Artemis 1 include BioSentinelle, a project led by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California to study the effects of deep space radiation on living organisms.
BioSentinel was the last of 10 CubeSats to be installed in the Orion stage adapter before it was transferred to the VAB for stacking on the space launch system. The CubeSat transports dry yeast cells on microfluidic cards, which allow microorganisms to be rehydrated once BioSentinel has reached space. Scientists will study the yeast’s response to the radiation environment in deep space during a six-month mission.
The living yeast cells were kept in the refrigerator until loading to preserve their biological content for as long as possible for the mission, according to NASA. BioSentinel was mounted on its deployer inside the Orion Stage Adapter last month, while the remaining nine CubeSats from the Artemis 1 mission were installed in July.
The other nine carpooling payloads launched with Artemis 1 are:
• Lunar IceCube: This mission, led by Morehead State University in Kentucky, will orbit the moon with an infrared spectrometer to study the presence of water and organic molecules on the lunar surface and in the lunar exosphere.
• NEA Scout: The NEA Scout mission will deploy a solar sail to guide itself to an overflight with a small asteroid. The small spacecraft was developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Marshall Space Flight Center.
• LunaH card: The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper, developed at Arizona State University, will map the hydrogen content of the entire South Pole of the moon, including in permanently shaded regions at high resolution, according to NASA.
• Cusp: The CubeSat for studying solar particles, or CuSP, will orbit the sun in interplanetary space. CuSP will observe particles and magnetic fields moving away from the sun before they reach Earth, where they can trigger geomagnetic storms and other space weather events.
• LunIR: Developed by Lockheed Martin, the lunar infrared imaging mission will fly over the moon to collect thermal images of the lunar surface. The mission will also demonstrate CubeSat technologies in deep space.
• Team miles: This privately-developed CubeSat will test a miniature plasma propulsion system in deep space. The Team Miles mission is a partnership between Miles Space and Fluid & Reason LLC, two companies based in Florida.
• EQUULATED: The EQUIlibriUm Lunar-Earth point 6U space probe will travel to the Lagrange L2 Earth-Moon point beyond the far side of the Moon. Developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the University of Tokyo, the mission will image the Earth’s plasmasphere, observe impacts on the far side of the Moon, and demonstrate low-energy trajectory control maneuvers near the moon.
• OMOTENASHI: The exceptional MOon exploration technologies demonstrated by the NAno Semi-Hard Impactor mission, also developed by JAXA and the University of Tokyo, will attempt a “semi-hard†landing on the moon’s surface using a solid rocket engine.
• ArgoMoon: This mission will use a small satellite to perform proximity maneuvers around the SLS upper stage after the deployment of the Orion stage adapter. ArgoMoon, provided by the Italian Space Agency in partnership with the Italian company Argotec, will provide high-resolution images of the upper stage for historical documentation.
Send an email to the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.