Small spacecraft, big science
Ten shoebox-sized CubeSats are hitching a ride on top of the Artemis I mission. We meet Andres Martinez, programme executive for NASA’s Small Spacecrafts, to find out more
How many CubeSats are on board Artemis I? There are 10 CubeSats installed alongside Artemis I. Seven of them are sponsored by NASA; four are under my responsibility. We also have three international CubeSats aboard. When you see the size of these CubeSats, and look into the incredible science that we’re going to be conducting, your first reaction is
‘no way!’, because they’re the size of a shoebox.
What sort of science will your four CubeSats be conducting?
The first is called Lunar IceCube and is led by Morehead State University in eastern Kentucky, with 100 university students participating. Lunar IceCube will orbit the Moon for six months and has an incredible infrared spectrometer. It will document where water is on the Moon and its daily movement.
The second one, LunIR, is led by Lockheed Martin. It doesn’t have any propulsion, but will travel on a ballistic trajectory straight to the Moon. Over the 72 minutes that it goes by the Moon it’s going to take some incredible high-resolution images with a very sophisticated infrared instrument.
The third is the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, led by Marshall Space Flight Center. It will rendezvous with an asteroid, take images and send those back to us. It will use a 80m2 solar sail – the size of a bus – as its main propulsion system. The target asteroid is about the size of a Volkswagen.
The fourth mission is BioSentinel, led by Ames, which will send live biology further into space than ever before, namely yeast. We are going to put BioSentinel in a heliocentric orbit, trailing behind Earth. As we expect solar events to take place, it will go through very harmful radiation and we’re going to document the effects on live organisms.
Do you have a favourite CubeSat?
I’m very fond of Lunar IceCube because I saw many kids grow up during the project. A couple were a little cocky, but I could see fear in some of them – especially when I walked into the room in a suit with a NASA pin. The first thing I would tell them was “I’m one of you. NASA is on your team.” What makes me super-happy is that a lot of these kids have now graduated and come to work here at NASA.