Cubesat for Planetary Science and Exploration Breaking New Grounds

CubeSat for Planetary Science and Exploration Breaking New Grounds

Julie Castillo-Rogez, Research Scientist Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Technology Demos Engineering/Ops Science

INSPIRE (NASA/JPL MarCO (JPL) Europa CubeSats (NASA – Concepts)

Use low-cost spacecraft For example telecom CubeSats that carry for technology testing relays during critical primary science, and validation in relevant operations for lander’s reconnaissance, or environment entry, descent, and opportunistic science landing; to support a investigations; by

Human crew at Mars; to themselves or as

facilitate teleoperations… daughtership

INSPIRE, MarCO, and EM-1 CubeSats as Stepping Stones to Deep Space

LEON 3 ‘Sphinx’

X-Band

Transponder ‘Iris’

3 Outline

Science Pull for Planetary CubeSats

3U and 6U Planetary CubeSat Landscape

Visions for Future Voyages

Parting Thoughts

Outline

Science Pull for Planetary CubeSats NASA Strategic Goals

Planetary Science Decadal Survey Priorities Multi-Scale Exploration

Fields Science Pull for Planetary CubeSats IAA Planetary CubeSat Study (2015) . Science enablers . Distributed measurements for dynamic processes . Impactor/observer architecture (cooperating assets)

. Alternative low-cost architectures . Fractionated payload for system science

. High-risk, high-reward observations . Access to unique vantage points . Risk assessment by sacrificial probe

. Breaking new grounds . Exploration of uncharted regions Outline

Science Pull for Planetary CubeSats

3U and 6U Planetary CubeSat Landscape Science Applications

Decadal Science Reconnaissance Pure Exploration

LunaH -Map (NASA/ASU) Lunar Flashlight (NASA/JPL/MSFC) OCCAM (JPL – Concept)

Addresses science Strategic knowledge gap Pure science exploration tracing from Vision and observations (e.g., of uncharted territories Voyages’ strategic BioSentinel, LF, NEAScout) (e.g., Earth’s Trojan questions (Origins, Reconnaissance prior to clouds), close comet or Habitability, Processes) sampling and landing NEA flyby e.g., LunaH-Map, AOSAT, Cu- (e.g., comet sample return) Cape

CubeSat-Based Measurements that have been proposed so far

• Fields and particles – Distributed/simultaneous magnetic field measurements – Dust and gas/plume composition – Radiation – Plasma characterization • Atmospheric Science – Distributed atmospheric measurements – Atmospheric composition (noble gases) • Reconnaissance – High-risk site study and reconnaissance (eg caves, landing sites, etc.) – Object characterization – Water search • In-Situ – Elemental, Isotopic & Mineralogical composition – Regolith mechanical properties – Surface dust dynamics

State of Small Instruments

<0.5 U available

~1 U available

Miniaturization In Progress Magnetometer Miniaturization difficult (for science performance

expectations) Use in Big Missions Big in Use

Philae’s DIM (Dust Impact CSAC (atomic clock) Monitor)

JPL’s Technology Demonstration CubeSats via Discovery

Secondary Orbiter/Flyby Constellations ~48-72 hour operations with (semi-)autonomous operations and Mothership relay

High Resolution Distributed, Simultaneous Particles Ice Prospecting Infrared Proximity Imaging & Fields Measurements Spectrometer

Impactors/Landers Hitchhiking Deep Space Nano-Satellite ~48-72 hour surface science operations with mothership localization and relay Mothership-deployed s/c to other interplanetary support destinations

Asteroid/Comet Instrumented Phobos Surface Landing w/ Deep Space Navigation & Radio Surface Penetrator Gamma Ray Spectrometer Science Demonstrations

Copyright 2015 California Institute of Technology. Government sponsorship acknowledged.13 Science has to Compete for Resources Deep Space Environment Challenges • Radiations require rad-hard subsystems and extra mass for shielding • Limited power beyond 1 AU impacts operations and science return

 Instrument volume is limited to 0.5-1 U o Small aperture/sampling drives integration time

 Long distance is severe limitation to science

data retrieval o Data rates beyond the Moon are between 0.5 and 8 kbps o Long downlink times drive thermal issues

14 ?? SCIENCE PERFORMANCE METRICS

Payload Sensitivity and Resolution - Scales with instrument size

Delta-V - A few 100 m/s to km/s

Pointing (control and stability) Loose (fields), up to 7.2 arcsec accuracy, 1 arcsec stability in 1 sec.

Position Control – km-scale per radio-tracking; <100m with optical navigation

Data Volume - 10s Mb for fields/particles; 100s Mb for geology and chemistry Mission Architectures (1/2) Independent CubeSat

LEO Observatory CubeSat at the Moon And Beyond

AOSAT (ASU) Lunar IceCube (MSU, GSFC) NEAScout (AES – MSFC/JPL/LaRC/JSC/GSFC) e.g., low-cost, low- e.g., Radiation e.g., physics, chemistry, gravity laboratories, monitoring, search for and processes meteor observatories, water, surface characterization for continuous Jupiter reconnaissance many objects photometry

P/L DV Ptg Pos Data P/L DV Ptg Pos Data P/L DV Ptg Pos Data GOALS Near Earth Asteroid Scout Characterize one candidate NEA Marshall Space Flight Center/Jet Propulsion with an imager to address key Lab/LaRC/JSC/GSFC/NASA Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs) One of three 6U Cubesats Demonstrates low cost capability sponsored by Advanced for HEOMD for NEA detection Exploration System, Joint and reconnaissance Robotic Program to fly on SLS EM-1

Measurements: NEA volume, spectral type, spin and orbital properties, address key physical and regolith mechanical SKGs Science Performance of NEAS 6U • Payload introduces IntelliCam • Meets resolution requirement of 10cm/pix at >500m distance • Meets sensitivity requirement to detect H=28 target at >10,000 km distance • Pointing control/stability is met • Pointing knowledge is limited by current technology

• 0.5 to 1.7 km/s DV: Will definitely go places!! •Target pool is limited by camera aperture • Biggest limitation is data volume vs power/thermal •Mitigated with operational strategies •Science software to increase data acquisition robustness

StrategiesData forHandling Science Imaging with with “Agile Constrained Science” Resources

Target

Reference

stars ACTIVITIES

Target Detection and approach Target Reconnaissance with Close Proximity Imaging with wide field imaging medium field imaging Local scale morphology, terrain Ephemeris determination Shape, spin, and local environment properties, landing site survey

Downlink rate <1 kbps Short flyby time (<30 min) Short time at closest approach Large target position Uncertain environment (<10 min.)

uncertainty Downlink rate <1 kbps past C/A

CHALLENGES

Autonomous sky scanning sequence Autonomous target pointing and gain setting Image co-adding Thumbnails, triage, lossless compression, subwindowing subwindowing

Compression APPROACH Mission Architectures (2/2) Carrier/Relay

Mother-Daughter Fractionated Architectures ESPA-Ring

Hayabusa-2 and MASCOT Constellation (Concept) NanoSwarm (UCSC/Tyvak)

Complementary vantage Distributed sensors for Ring provides most of points; remote vs. in situ field, atmosphere, or the DV and telecom exploration; cooperation system-wide exploration; relay; can reach asteroid for motion planning, etc. constellation networks main belt, potentially Can accommodate for event triangulation outer Solar system; various form factors P/L DV Ptg Pos Data P/L DV Ptg Pos Data P/L DV Ptg Pos Data In Situ Exploration with MASCOT On Hayabusa-2 µOmega

MAG

MASCOT’s Science Performance Mid-IR thermal Wide Angle Camera sensor Provides geological context

• ~10 kg incl. 3 kg payload • Includes hopping mechanism • Lifetime of ~15 hr CAM • Data relay to mothership MARA

altitude

Home Position 20 km

3-axis fluxgate Imaging Spectrometer Deployment Magnetometer Altitude Regolith mineralogy at m-scale 100 m Remnant mag field Relocation

Up-Righting Limited lifetime but efficient operational SDL-Phase On-Surface Operation timeline – will meet focused but important 1 asteroid day objectives to characterize NEO surface 1st Science Cycle D N N D 2nd Science Cycle Outline

Science Pull for Planetary CubeSats

3U and 6U Planetary CubeSat Landscape

Visions for Future Voyages New Deep Space Tailored CubeSat Subsystems

X-Band

0.5m HGA

Transponder ‘Iris’ LEON 3 Computer ‘Sphinx’

Hybrid Propulsion

Flux gate magnetometer (0.5 U)

• Based on INSPIRE’s design upgraded with electronics vault – fits in 3 U • Life time requirement is < 48 hours • Particle detector is combined with magnetometer and provides additional shielding

27 Landing Site Reconnaissance Explorer CubeSat for Student Involvement in Travels to Europa

Attitude control is 10 cm/pix achieved via reaction wheels and thrusters

• “Ranger-Style” probe relays images down to 1 km to the surface Pointing < 0.5 deg Best resolution < 10 cm/px • Based on INSPIRE’s design upgraded Impact angle > 70 deg, with electronics vault – fits in 3 U Illumination direction 45-70 deg. • Life time requirement is < 10 hours Comet Volatile Isotopic Composition for Origin Science To obtain a high-precision oxygen isotopic measurement from a Jupiter-family comet

Mission to 46P/Wirtanen in December 2018 (<0.1 AU)

• WISPER uses a millimeter wave spectrometer (cf. MIRO) • Mission would fly by <1000 km from Wirtanen • Performance requirement exceeded by ~50%

Mission Concept - Pre-Decisional – for Planning and Discussion Purposes Only Date Goes Here 31

Outline

Science Pull for Planetary CubeSats

3U and 6U Planetary CubeSat Landscape

Visions for Future Voyages

Parting Thoughts

Can I Have Another U (or 6?) Doubling the Volume Offers Major Advantages

• Increase antenna size o E.g., combine MarCO’s reflectarray with NEAS avionics • Increase DV o Pack more propellant, more efficiency

• Add another instrument o On top of camera

• Increase lifetime (nanolanders) • Selected redundancy MIL-STD o Backup reaction wheels o Redundancy on key avionic components (e.g., computer)

Can I Have a Different Form Factor? Tailoring to specific applications

Comet Impactor (ASU/JPL Discovery Tech Demo)

Small Body Hoppers Atmospheric Probe (Hedgehog, Stanford/MIT/JPL; POGO, APL) (MarsDrop, JPL) Considerations

• We’re almost there! o Advances promoted by AES and internal R&TD programs are bringing CubeSats to the next level

• CubeSats have the potential to enable novel architectures for decadal-class science o Space is hard – Deep space CubeSats are not cheap o Going places takes time – Operations for deep space CubeSats should be expensive

• Cost/Risk posture will determine success Europa Nanosats provide an opportunity for (relatively) low cost focused science and technology investigations