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One of NASA's MarCO twin gears took this image of Mars on October 2 – the first time that a CubeSat, a kind of inexpensive spacecraft and the size of a briefcase – did it. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
NASA's MarCO mission was to determine if a space-sized spacecraft, called CubeSats, could survive the journey into deep space. Now, MarCO – which represents Mars Cube One – has Mars in sight.
One of the MarCO CubeSats twins took this image of Mars on Oct. 3 – the first image of the red planet ever produced by this class of tiny, low-cost spacecraft. Both CubeSats are officially called MarCO-A and MarCO-B but are dubbed EVE and Wall-E by their engineering team.
A wide-angle camera above MarCO-B produced the image as a test of the exposure parameters. The MarCO mission, led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, hopes to produce more images as CubeSats approach Mars by November 26. It is at this point that they will demonstrate their communication capabilities as NASA's InSight probe attempts to land on the Red Planet. (However, the InSight mission will not use them.) Mars NASA orbiters will retransmit the spacecraft data to Earth.)
This image was taken at a distance of about 12.8 million kilometers from Mars. The MarCOs "pursue" Mars, which is a moving target as it revolves around the Sun. To be in place when the InSight landings, the CubeSats have to travel about 85 million kilometers. They have already traveled 399 million kilometers.
One of NASA's twin MarCO satellites took this image (annotated) of March on October 2 – the first time that a CubeSat, a kind of inexpensive satellite and the size of a satellite. briefcase – did it. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The wide angle camera of MarCO-B looks directly from the CubeSat bridge. Parts related to the high gain antenna of the spacecraft are visible on each side of the image. Mars appears in the form of a small red dot to the right of the image.
To take the picture, the MarCO team had to program the CubeSat for a rotation in space so that the bridge of its square "body" points to Mars. After several test images, they were delighted to see this bright red sting.
"We're waiting six months before we get to Mars," said Cody Colley, MarCO's Mission Manager at JPL. "The cruising phase of the mission is always difficult, so you have to take all the little wins when they come in. Finally, seeing the planet is definitely a big win for the team."
Explore further:
A pale blue dot seen by a CubeSat
More information:
For more information on MarCO, visit www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco.php
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