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The era of the interplanetary cubesat has definitely begun.
Less than seven months ago, no tiny spacecraft had yet traveled beyond Earth's orbit. But two case-sized probes paved the way for Mars, covering 301 million miles in space (484 million kilometers) and transmitting data to the home of NASA's InSight lander at the touchdown successful of the latter on the red planet, Monday, November 26. ).
The tiny NASA spacecraft, known as MarCO-A and MarCO-B, even photographed Mars and helped researchers collect data on the planet's atmosphere as they flew over, members said. from the mission team. [NASA’s InSight Mars Lander: Full Coverage]
"This team of mostly part-time workers has proven the technology we were trying to demonstrate with this mission," said Andy Klesh, Chief Engineer at MarCO, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. , at a press conference. Press briefing at JPL on Monday.
The main objectives of the $ 18 million MarCO project (whose name is short for "Mars Cube One"), Klesh added, involve: "being able to support a big ship like InSight, to enable it to achieve his fantastic science "as showing" that we can take a smaller, more focused risk[y] mission in the solar system, "Klesh added.
The mission also aimed to "bring with us the community we built for this small spaceship," he said. This community included many early-stage engineers and scientists, some of whom are still in university, Klesh said.
Artist illustration depicting the tiny NASA MarCO spacecraft en route to Mars.
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The MarCOs were launched with InSight on May 5th at the top of a United Lanc Alliance Alliance V rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was a first too; each previous NASA interplanetary mission took off from Florida's Space Coast.
The MarCOs were not related to InSight. They made their own way to Mars, so they could get in position for their data relay work. This was an important task as no Mars NASA orbiter would be able to immediately relay InSight entry, descent and landing information.
MarCO is a demo mission testing three major technological components: a high gain special antenna, a soft-ball sized miniature radio and a cold gas propulsion system using the same elements used in fire extinguishers .
This last bit explains the nicknames of the duo, "WALL-E" and "EVE". In the 2008 film "WALL-E" by Pixar, the eponymous robot uses a fire extinguisher to zoom in on space and chase his more advanced companion, EVE, with an on-board propulsion system.
MarCO-A (EVE) and MarCO-B (WALL-E) have both been launched with standard cameras. EVE did not work very well, but WALL-E managed to capture images of Mars from far away. Indeed, the mission team has already released a superb photo of the red planet taken by WALL-E at a distance of about 4,700 km. 7,600 km, Monday, only minutes after the triumphant touch of InSight.
WALL-E also attempted to photograph the two tiny moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, NASA officials said in a statement on Wednesday (November 28), without revealing whether the small probe had succeeded in the venture.
We could see more pictures of WALL-E soon. The MarCO team was initially focused on recovering InSight data via both cubesats. But Klesh and his colleagues now have time to dig deeper into the MarCO data, which includes vital sign information, as well as images collected by WALL-E and some EVE radio stations. [NASA’s InSight Mars Lander: Amazing Landing Day Photos!]
EVE being past behind Mars at Monday's meeting, the MarCO team is studying how the atmosphere of the red planet has distorted the probe's signals. Such information may reveal details about the thickness and composition of the atmosphere, said members of the mission team.
"We not only did technology demonstrations, but we were not only able to retrieve images, but also scientific data," Klesh said.
Although WALL-E and EVE have assumed their main missions and are now moving away from the red planet, their work may not be complete. The duo could observe an asteroid or other object in the future – if they get close enough to this organization and if the team gets money for a long-term mission, said John Baker, JPL program manager for small spacecraft, at Space.com.
Another Bantam spacecraft will soon follow the MarCOs in deep space, if all goes as planned. A phalanx of cubesats is evident in Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), the first NASA space launch flight, currently targeted for June 2020.
The main goal of EM-1 is to send the NASA Orion crew capsule (which will not carry passengers) on a three-week cruise around the moon. Cubesats hitchhike and do a variety of different things. For example, the Lunar Flashlight probe will search for water ice on the surface of the moon, the near-Earth Scout asteroid will direct solar navigation to a space rock and will examine it closely, and BioSentinel will study how deep space radiation affects DNA and DNA. repair mechanisms.
It's just a taste. More than a dozen cubesats will fly on EM-1; you can learn more about some of them here.
"Cubesats have incredible potential for carrying cameras and scientific instruments in deep space," Baker said in a statement to NASA on Wednesday. "They will never replace the better performing spacecraft that NASA is known for developing, but they are low-cost links that can allow us to explore new ways."
The InSight mission, worth $ 850 million, dubbed "Indoor Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport" – will spend nearly two terrestrial years studying the composition of the interior of Mars via a burrard thermal probe and a series of ultra-sensitive seismometers. The results should reveal key details about the formation of rocky planets, mission team members said.
Mike Wall's book on extraterrestrial life research, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018, illustrated by Karl Tate) has just been published. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally posted on Space.com.
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