NASA's Lunar Flashlight and Lunar IceCube missions!

[Frida Space]

In 2017, NASA will launch a new mission to the moon: Lunar Flashlight, a 6U Cubesat probe pushed along by a 78 sqm solar sail. The probe will liftoff aboard the very first SLS flight, scheduled for December 2017, and reach the moon 6 months later. It will map the Moon's polar regions, searching for water ice deposits in the permanently shadowed craters. It will complete 80 orbits at an altitude of 20 km and will search for ice reflecting sunlight off of its sail.

After a few months, NASA will launch another mission, Resource Prospector, a rover that will land on the moon and analyze further at least two of the sites studied by Flashlight. It will have a lifetime of approx. one week.

The goal of these two missions is to verify in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), a procedure which will be very important for future human exploreres, whether it will be the Moon, Mars, Europa or anywhere else.

Lunar Flashlight has already been fully funded by NASA; the spacecraft will be built next year. Now, it's just a matter of whether the SLS can make it for a December 2017 launch or not. The Resource Prospector mission is different, in that it will launch aboard it very own rocket. NASA is still negotiating with several partners to hitch a ride to the moon.

What do you think of these two missions?

Edited July 21, 2015 by Frida Space
funding

[Dkmdlb]

6 Months sounds like a really long time to get to the moon, which isn't very far away (heck, I can see it from my house!). But that's about how long it would take to get to the moon from Earth on a straight line at freeway speed. Not bad for a solar sail, I guess.

[astropapi1]

6U cubesat? I thought the limit was 3U...

I'm excited that NASA is finally giving ISRU a serious look, directly on the Moon. Our KSP Community Cubesat will be aimed at that same objective, growing plants on lunar gravity to see how a future lunar base would be able to produce their own oxygen and food complements. Maybe we can convince NASA to put some plants on that rover. There's no better place to test the growth of plants on the moon than the moon itself.

[Frida Space]

6U cubesat? I thought the limit was 3U...

"For this call, we focused on a non-optimized “Lunar Flashlight†concept on a 6U CubeSat bus." (from the official paper available here)

[Kryten]

6U cubesat? I thought the limit was 3U...

3U for the standard deployer, but somehow I doubt SLS has any terribly critical mass or volume limits on the secondary payload.

[NovaSilisko]

Source, please?

edit: source: http://sservi.nasa.gov/articles/lunar-flashlight/

Edited October 13, 2014 by NovaSilisko

[Frida Space]

Source, please?

I spoke via email with the mission's principal investigator, Barbara Cohen.

[NovaSilisko]

I spoke via email with the mission's principal investigator, Barbara Cohen.

Well, then. That's most definitely a source.

Looking forward to this. SLS is not going to launch in 2017 though I don't think. There's still a chance if either they switch it to a cargo-only flight or get Orion's service module going along quicker.

[Frida Space]

Well, then. That's most definitely a source.

Looking forward to this. SLS is not going to launch in 2017 though I don't think. There's still a chance if either they switch it to a cargo-only flight or get Orion's service module going along quicker.

She obviously didn't tell me that the SLS is not going to make it (although it's kinda likely), but she did say that they'll have to adapt to the SLS schedule, whatever happens.

[Streetwind]

Wait, you mean SLS actually has a payload now besides one-mission Orion?

Sorry, had to make that joke because it amuses me so much that of all things, a 6U cubesat would be the first thing they manifest for this 70-ton payload monster. I'm grinning over both ears here!

The mission itself sounds very interesting though. Investigating solar sail propulsion and at the same time utilizing the sail as a giant floodlight, that's just so cool. I hope they'll carry at least a small camera, because I would love to see some video from a 20km lunar orbit. It's really low - less than 9 km over the highest terrain elevation. I believe that usually only landers fly at this altitude (for a brief time).

[LABHOUSE]

It will be cancelled I am 80% sure remember all those missions congress cancelled... we need a country that gives more money to the space program and doesn't cancel or cut costs on it. But they may use a falcon nine or falcon heavy if it isn't cancelled instead because sls will be cancelled for sure.

[Streetwind]

NASA has more budget than every other civilian space agency on the face of the planet combined. They don't really need that much more. What they do need is the ability and permission to spend said budget as they see fit, instead of being ordered to fund pointless prestige projects that gobble up the majority of it.

[magnemoe]

Wait, you mean SLS actually has a payload now besides one-mission Orion?

Sorry, had to make that joke because it amuses me so much that of all things, a 6U cubesat would be the first thing they manifest for this 70-ton payload monster. I'm grinning over both ears here!

The mission itself sounds very interesting though. Investigating solar sail propulsion and at the same time utilizing the sail as a giant floodlight, that's just so cool. I hope they'll carry at least a small camera, because I would love to see some video from a 20km lunar orbit. It's really low - less than 9 km over the highest terrain elevation. I believe that usually only landers fly at this altitude (for a brief time).

As I understand it will have an camera, purpose is to get an look at the areas at the poles.

And yes a solar sail might also be able to hold an moon orbit.

[peadar1987]

6 Months sounds like a really long time to get to the moon, which isn't very far away (heck, I can see it from my house!)

Pff, I can see Polaris from my house

[Bunsen]

6U cubesat? I thought the limit was 3U...

Cal Poly's original P-POD design is limited to 3U, but the concept has been extended by others. NanoRacks' ISS-based system uses 1x6U tubes, many of which are presently loaded with pairs of Planet Labs 3U satellites. Planetary Systems sells a 2x3U "Canisterized Satellite Dispenser" with a different mounting system from the P-POD family, and I've seen several in-progress projects being built to that spec (I'm working on one, in fact).

[NovaSilisko]

sls will be cancelled for sure.

Everything is cancelled eventually. But SLS has momentum by now, hardware is in the beginning phases of construction. I think it'll make at least 1-3 flights before cancellation, but likely not too many after that.

[Rune]

Really cool concept! I wonder what kind of surface resolutions they can get with such a tiny payload, whizzing by the ground so fast and using light bounced of the (I assume) flat sail. Planning the shots is going to be fun! Almost as much as planning the insertion with such a tiny thrust... the guys at JPL are wizards with weak-boundary trajectories.

Rune. Respect! That math is well beyond me.

[Frozen_Heart]

6U cubesat? I thought the limit was 3U...

SLS isn't exactly tight on payload capacity...

[Frida Space]

Lunar Flashlight will be flying on SLS's maiden mission in 2018! Source

[1of6Billion]

How does the force from a 78m2 solar sail compare to atmospheric drag, solar wind, micro meteorites etc? I can't imagine getting to the moon with a solar sail..

[Frida Space]

After Lunar Flashlight, NEA Scout (which will visit a near-Earth asteroid) and BioSentinel (which will study DNA damage on microorganisms due to deep space radiation), NASA has approved a fourth mission, Lunar IceCube, which will work with Lunar Flashlight and study concentrations of water and other volatiles on the entire surface of the Moon (not only at the poles) as a function of time of day, latitude, and regolith age and composition. It will have only one instrument, BIRCHES, a 1,000,000-pixel infrared spectrometer which will be able to distinguish between liquid, solid and gaseous water. The spacecraft will use its electric propulsion system (the first iodine propellant to fly into space!) to let herself be naturally captured into lunar orbit after three months of manuevering around Earth.

www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/lunar-icecube-wins-coveted-slot-on-exploration-mission-1

[Skyler4856]

The US has demonstrated interest in private uses of celestial resources, so this may be the Sutter's Mill to launch a "Moon Rush".

The indication of water may also simply be something done out of a desire to establish a purely scientific mission.