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One of NASA's MarCO spacecraft took this (annotated) image of Mars on October 2 – the first time a CubeSat, a sort of inexpensive spacecraft the size of a briefcase – was doing. Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
NASA's MarCO mission was designed to determine if a spaceship the size of a briefcase, 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 nicknamed "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 count, 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 she turns around the Sun. To be in place during the landing of InSight, the CubeSats have to travel about 85 million kilometers. They have already traveled 399 million kilometers.
The wide angle camera of MarCO-B looks right from the CubeSat bridge. Elements 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 are waiting six months to arrive on Mars," said Cody Colley, MarCO Mission Manager at JPL. "The cruising phase of the mission is always difficult, so you take all the little victories when they show up. Finally, seeing the planet is definitely a big win for the team. "
For more information on MarCO, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco.php
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