Exploring our solar system with CubeSats and SmallSats: the dawn of a new era
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Exploring our solar system with CubeSats and SmallSats: the dawn of a new era Anthony Freeman1 Received: 30 October 2019 / Revised: 31 December 2019 / Accepted: 10 January 2020 © CEAS 2020
Abstract We are on the threshold of a new era in robotic exploration of our solar system, one in which CubeSats and SmallSats will play an important role. As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s lead center for robotic solar system exploration, JPL has a strategic interest in these new capabilities that enable planetary scientists to expand our knowledge of how our solar system formed, how it works, and even how life originated. In November 2018, JPL’s two Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft, launched with the InSight Discovery mission, made history as they flew past Mars. This first pair of interplanetary CubeSats navigated their way independently to Mars to provide a relay capability for the InSight lander back to Earth. Lunar Flashlight and Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, two CubeSats that are currently under development, will form part of the ‘swarm’ of CubeSats escorted onto a lunar trajectory by NASA’s Artemis-1 mission—the first launch of its new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. This paper provides an overview of these and other CubeSat and SmallSat mission developments at JPL from the author’s perspective. It is intended to inspire others to follow the trail blazed by these pioneering missions. Keywords CubeSats · SmallSats · Deep Space Missions
1 Introduction In earlier papers [1, 2] the author argued that deep space CubeSats and SmallSats are on the verge of exponential growth, as seen for CubeSats in low-Earth orbit. There is growing interest within the Space and Earth Science community for such missions [3]. The growth in terrestrial CubeSats and SmallSats is driven by the push towards constellations, which may consist of multiple elements that each yield unique measurements that collectively serve one higher objective [4], or of similar elements that offer significantly enhanced temporal resolution [5, 6], consistent with recently expressed requirements from the Earth science community [7, 8]. The European Space Agency (ESA) has published an assessment of a range of missions that could be performed using CubeSats and SmallSats, with emphasis on a variety of accessible targets within the inner solar system [9]. * Anthony Freeman [email protected] 1
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, MS 321‑625, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
Miniaturization of many key spacecraft technologies across a broad front will have a profound effect on future deep space exploration [10], for both large and small spacecraft; and, projecting out into the far future, perhaps even on interstellar exploration [11]. Such projections have stimulated interest within NASA and at JPL in CubeSat and SmallSat missions.
2 Recent and upcoming missions JPL’s two MARCO spacecraft launched along with the InSight Discovery mission in May of 2018 (Fig. 1). This
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