NASA’s two small Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats will be flying past Mars in 2016 just as the agency’s next Mars lander, InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), is descending through the Martian atmosphere and landing on the surface.
This artist’s concept shows two MarCO CubeSats and the Mars lander InSight. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
CubeSats are a class of spacecraft based on a standardized small size and modular use of off-the-shelf technologies.
Many have been made by students, and dozens have been launched into Earth orbit using extra payload mass available on launches of larger spacecraft.
The basic CubeSat unit is a box roughly 4 inches (10 cm) square. Larger CubeSats are multiples of that unit.
MarCO’s design is a six-unit CubeSat, with a stowed size of about 14.4 inches (36.6 cm) x 9.5 inches (24.3 cm) x 4.6 inches (11.8 cm).
The twin communications-relay MarCO CubeSats will launch in March 2016 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on the same Atlas V rocket as NASA’s InSight lander.
The MarCO CubeSats will fly by Mars while InSight is landing, in September 2016.
“MarCO is an experimental capability that has been added to the InSight mission, but is not needed for mission success. MarCO will fly independently to Mars,” said Dr Jim Green from NASA’s Headquarters in Washington.
This will be the first time CubeSats have flown in deep space.
If the demonstration mission succeeds, it could allow for a ‘bring-your-own’ communications relay option for use by future Mars missions in the critical few minutes between Martian atmospheric entry and touchdown.
By verifying CubeSats are a viable technology for interplanetary missions, and feasible on a short development timeline, this technology demonstration could lead to many other applications to explore and study our Solar System.
