CubeSat Moon mission to test new Ion Drive
Summary
The contractor was first named back in February; with the deal done, construction kicks off for the six-unit box that will, if all goes well, accompany the Orion EM-1 (exploration mission 1) to the moon in 2018. Its also going to be a test platform for a propulsion system called “electrospray” – a scaled-down low-power ion drive using electrically-charged droplets accelerated past a static electrical field. As NASA more prosaically puts it: “to make sure it can withstand intense vibrations, the extremes of hot and cold, and even the magnetic fields of space”. The six-unit (meaning its volume is around six litres) CubeSat packs in three payloads: a mass spectrometer, and two “no-boom” magnetometers (that is, theyre deployed within the satellite rather than on booms). The kit will be collecting data to create a chemical and electromagnetic profile of the outer atmosphere – presuming the box survives NASAs cruel-to-be-kind preflight.