Artemis 1 Mission: 13 Secondary Payloads On Board!

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Published on August 26, 2020 12:15:55 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9F3f403Ta8

Duration: 12:25

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Going to the Moon back in the late 60s and 70s was a little bit rushed, with more politics involved than science. After all, it was a space race, and only for the sake of beating the Russians to the Moon. Nowadays, going back to the Moon is a possibility again, and it’s nothing but “rushed.”
The new Artemis project is putting Americans back on the Moon, and this time, they are going there to stay! Yes, you heard correctly!
American astronauts are going to stay on the Moon to perform scientific experiments in preparations to go to the red planet afterwards.
Today, we’re going to talk about the 13 secondary payloads that are going to be aboard the first Artemis mission back to the Moon; Artemis 1.
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The Artemis 1 mission will be the first mission to the Moon, it will be an uncrewed mission used to demonstrate the readiness and efficiency of the different systems of the Artemis project (the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System rocket, and the reentry and recovery systems.)


Now, the 13 payloads that we mentioned earlier are all small satellites, so small in fact they are called “CubeSats”! You wouldn’t think a CubeSat would do much science, but believe me it will!


Actually, the idea of CubeSats aren’t exclusive to the Artemis project, they’ve been used before many times in low Earth orbits producing some pretty interesting science as well. So much so that “Avi Mandell”, a scientist in NASA’s goddard space flight center said back in 2015:

“I believe the future looks bright for science on CubeSats, due to their fantastic versatility. Once we understand how to design these platforms, the possibilities are endless as to what we can do with them.”

This time, the tiny satellites will put low Earth orbit behind them and hit straight to the Moon, exploring different orbits and different altitudes above the Moon which will allow for completely different and exciting science.

If you’re wondering how tiny CubeSats are, well, they are usually measured in “Units” or “U” which is the equivalent of 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, and they can be any multiple of units, until 6 Units.

Besides being so small, CubeSats also have the advantage of being low cost, which enables different sectors (public, private, or even individuals) to build their own cubesats to be launched into space and explore.

But how will the CubeSats actually reach the Moon? We mentioned they'll be a part of the Artemis-1 mission, which means they will be on board the Space Launch System rocket.

More specifically, all of the 13 CubeSats will be connected to the “Orion Stage adaptor” which in turn is connected to the “Orion Spacecraft”, and when the rocket releases the spacecraft, the payloads will get released as well and each CubeSat will be on its way to take its place in orbit.

Now let’s talk about the CubeSats themselves, let’s start with the satellite called “Lunar Flashlight”, this satellite is very special because it’s going to be the first mission looking for water ice inside caters on the Moon’s south pole using a near-infrared laser.

The craters under study are so dark because they never see the Sun light which makes them the perfect hiding place for different kinds of molecules to get trapped.

The “Lunar Flashlight” will be in orbit around the Moon for 2 months and it will perform its science by shooting a laser beam into the dark craters, and the reflection off these craters would be met by 4 reflectometers on board the “CubeSat.”
The reflection would be analysed to figure out the composition of the crater, and the location of water ice.

Another aspect that makes the “Lunar Flashlight” so special, is that it will be the first CubeSat to use a green propulsion system, designed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, alongside Georgia Tech university.
The new green propulsion system is based not on hydrazine, but on a green monopropellant developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory, the system will eventually weight only 6 kilograms (12 pounds) and can deliver over 3000 Newton-seconds of total impulse.

The new propellant is safe, less toxic, more chemically stable, and easier to handle. It’s also efficient in delivering higher specific impulse.

Credits: Ron Miller
Credits: Nasa/Shutterstock/Storyblocks/Elon Musk/SpaceX
Credits: JPL-CalTech/
goddard/Rebecca Roth (cc by 2.0)

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