Breaking

Jul 11, 2020 1 min, 43 secs

This is more or less how NASA has done planetary science for decades.

In recent years, a new generation of companies is developing new rockets for small satellites that cost roughly $10 million for a launch.

And Virgin Orbit has teamed up with a group of Polish universities to launch up to three missions to Mars with its LauncherOne vehicle.

Two years ago, a pair of CubeSats built by NASA (and called MarCO-A and MarCO-B) launched along with the InSight mission.

In space, the small satellites deployed their own solar arrays, stabilized themselves, pivoted toward the Sun, and then journeyed to Mars.

This is a very exciting time in planetary science.".

NASA had several goals with its MarCO spacecraft, said Andy Klesh, an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who served as technical lead for the mission.

So during their six-month transit to Mars, the MarCOs proved small satellites could thrive in deep space, control their attitudes and, upon reaching their destination, use a high-gain antenna to stream data back home at 8 kilobits per second.

With the launch of its Mars InSight lander in 2018, NASA faced a communications blackout during the critical period when the spacecraft was due to enter the Martian atmosphere and touch down on the red planet.

To close the communications gap, NASA built the two MarCO 6U CubeSats for $18.5 million and used them to relay data back from InSight during the landing process.

The success of the MarCOs changed the perception of small satellites and planetary science?

The concept of interplanetary small satellite missions also spurred interest in the emerging new space industry. "That mission got our attention at Virgin Orbit," said Will Pomerantz, director of special projects at the California-based launch company.

After the MarCO missions, Pomerantz said, the company began to receive phone calls from research groups about LauncherOne, Virgin's small rocket that is dropped from a 747 aircraft before igniting its engine.

Absent this new mode of planetary exploration, Pomerantz noted, a country like Poland might only be able to participate as one of several secondary partners on a Mars mission.

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED