The NASA Cubesat Missions Flying on Artemis-1

• Main Authors: McIntosh, Dawn M., Baker, John D., Matus, Joseph A.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: DigitalCommons@USU 2020
• Subjects: nasa; cubesat; missions; flying; artemis; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2020/all2020/44; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4646&context=smallsat

In 2021, the Space Launch Services (SLS) Artemis-1 mission will carry thirteen 6U CubeSats into deep space. Three of those payloads are NASA missions performing a variety of unique deep-space science experiments. The three NASA CubeSat missions are BioSentinel, Lunar Flashlight and NEAScout. The BioSentinel mission will measure deep-space radiation effects on DNA using yeast organisms. It is a six-month mission in a heliocentric orbit. BioSentinel was designed, built, tested and operated out of NASA Ames Research Center. Lunar Flashlight’s mission is to look for surface water ice in the permanently shadowed regions near the south pole of the Moon and test out new small spacecraft technologies. The spacecraft was developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a technology demonstration mission with support from the Marshall Space Flight Center, the Goddard Space Flight Center and Georgia Institute of Technology. NEA Scout’s mission is twofold: to demonstrate solar sail deployment and spacecraft navigation using the sail to detect, track, fly by, and characterize a near earth asteroid. NEA Scout was developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and support from the Goddard Space Flight Center, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, and Langley Research Center.