Moonshot Stowaways

The US capsule headed to the moon is giving a ride to 10 spacecraft

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A friend reminded me a day ago that I have written a bit already about NASA’s Artemis 1 mission to the moon. Its first launch date is just 12 days away. Here I am writing about it again because, even without astronauts aboard, this is a pretty cool flight.

Take the stowaways for example. Loaded onto the Artemis rocket are 10 cubesats that will get a ride toward the moon before being released to conduct science experiments, observations, and even landing on the moon.

Technicians work on a JAXA CubeSat that will hitch a ride to space on the Artemis 1 mission to the moon. (Credit: NASA)

Cubesats are small. They are about the size of a large shoebox or a small carry-on and weigh about 25 pounds. Some can roll out solar panels for power, usually have some propellant to go where they want to go, and send back a lot of data. Cubesats aren’t that expensive to build. Rarely does it make sense to spend all the energy necessary to send one into deep space. Hitching a ride on the “mega-moon rocket,” makes sense.

SECONDARY PAYLOADS

Some of the cubesats will study Earth, one will fly off toward an asteroid, and a few will study the moon. NASA says these are high-risk efforts (the cubesats may not work or batteries may run out), but there is a potential for a big payoff. A couple of those cubesats caught my attention because of Fukushima and a name.

NASA produced video on how cubesats will be deployed during the Artemis 1 mission set to launch August 29, 2022. (Credit: NASA)

To live on the moon, astronauts will need water. We already know there is ice on the moon. But how much? Two of the cubesats will study the surface of the moon looking for signs of ice. One is called Lunar IceCube. I do like that name. Some of these cubesat missions were determined in a competition NASA set up.

LUNAR ICECUBE

Lunar IceCube comes from Morehead State University in Kentucky. Ben Malphrus is known as the Principal Investigator for the IceCube cubesat. He was direct when he talked to reporters on Monday. “The science mission for Lunar IceCube is to prospect for water,” he said. I see an old western movie with an actor with a divining rod. IceCube will be using an infrared spectrometer.

Think of it this way. You saw a speck of gold, now you want to see if there is more, a vein of gold. “We will be looking at the distribution of water ice from the mid latitudes to to the PSR. So, the permanently shadowed regions where it tends to collect,” Malphrus said.

Lunar IceCube's Dr. Ben Malphrus explains how and where the small satellite will look for signs of water on the moon. (Credit: NASA)

IceCube will only orbit. Omotenashi, another cubesat, is going for a landing on the moon. This is not like the landing of Apollo 11. The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) is going for a, “semi-hard impact,” landing. JAXA is trying to learn if it is possible to put a small spacecraft on the surface of the moon by burning some propellant to slow it down and then deploying airbags to cushion the landing. Semi-hard as they say.

SEMI-HARD LANDING

What I found interesting about the JAXA mission is that they want to do some monitoring of radiation. Radiation is an enemy, one of many, for humans in deep space. After the tsunami and catastrophe at the Fukushima nuclear power plants, Japan developed a miniature radiation detection device that children could wear to monitor their exposure. JAXA has worked that small detection device into their cubesat.

JAXA's CubeSat Omotenashi is expected to have a semi-hard landing on the moon with airbags. Before landing the spacecraft is expected to send radiation data from a monitor developed after the nuclear accident in Fukushima. (Credit: NASA)

Principal Investigator, Prof. Tatsuaki Hashimoto, tells me they may get radiation data up until one minute before landing. JAXA also hopes to prove these "semi-hard impact" landings can be used to put more devices on the lunar surface.

These little satellites are helping cut a trail back to the moon, giving NASA and scientists a better sense of the environment we are returning to. Not bad for some stowaways.

(Cover photo credit: NASA)