Little satellites packed on NASA’s most powerful rocket ever promise big science—if their batteries don’t fail them. WeekendReads
When NASA’s most powerful rocket ever attempts its first flight this month, its highest profile payload will be three instrumented mannequins, setting off on a 42-day journey beyond the Moon and back. They are stand-ins for the astronauts that the 98-meter-tall rocket, known as the Space Launch System , is supposed to carry to the Moon as soon as 2025, as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
At stake is not just data, but a test of CubeSats as deep-space probes. “We’re in the transition phase from being a curiosity and a training tool to being a platform for real science,” Malphrus says. CubeSats are easy to assemble out of standardized parts—from thrifty ion propulsions systems to pint-size radio transmitters—supplied by a growing commercial base. That lets researchers focus on developing instruments capable of gathering novel data—if they can shrink them into a CubeSat package.
NASA is targeting 29 August for the first flight of its mammoth Space Launch System, seen here in a June dress rehearsal.Several SLS CubeSats will focus on lunar ice, which has intrigued researchers ever since NASA’s Lunar Prospector discovered a signal suggestive of water in the late 1990s. Using a neutron detector, it peered into frigid, permanently shadowed regions in polar craters.
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