NASA's Lunar Flashlight is a low-cost 6U CubeSat whose mission is to search for ice and mineral deposits inside of the scattered craters at Moon's southern pole. To conduct its primary science mission, Lunar Flashlight must be placed in a stable lunar polar orbit which requires the utilization of an on-board propulsion system. However, to this date, most CubeSats have been propelled by cold-gas or electric propulsion systems that have proven to scale well but lack sufficient impulse to conduct large $\Delta V$ maneuvers such as orbit insertions. To this end, the Lunar Flashlight mission has chosen to utilize a custom-designed green monopropellant propulsion system developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology under the leadership of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and support from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The developed system is capable of providing more than the required propulsive capability for full mission success while fitting inside of a 2.5U volume and weighing less than six kilograms. The system utilizes the Advanced Space Craft Energetic Non Toxic (ASCENT) green monopropellant that provides higher specific impulse compared to traditional hydrazine while also being safer to handle. If successful, the presented propulsion system will enable Lunar Flashlight to be the first CubeSat to reach the Moon, the first to conduct an orbit insertion, and will be the first CubeSat demonstration of the ASCENT propellant.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Development of a CubeSat-Scale Green Monopropellant Propulsion System for NASA's Lunar Flashlight Mission


    Beteiligte:
    Kowalkowski, Matthew (Autor:in) / Baker, John (Autor:in) / Williams, Hunter (Autor:in) / McQueen, Donald (Autor:in) / Diaz, Carlos (Autor:in) / Cavender, Daniel (Autor:in) / Andrews, Dawn (Autor:in) / Lightsey, E. Glenn (Autor:in) / Talaksi, Ali (Autor:in) / Huggins, Grayson (Autor:in)

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2021-01-11


    Medientyp :

    Preprint


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch



    DEVELOPMENT OF A CUBESAT-SCALE GREEN MONOPROPELLANT PROPULSION SYSTEM FOR NASA'S LUNAR FLASHLIGHT MISSION

    Huggins, Grayson M. / Talaksi, Ali / Andrews, Dawn et al. | TIBKAT | 2021



    Development of a CubeSat-Scale Green Monopropellant Propulsion System for NASA's Lunar Flashlight Mission

    Huggins, Grayson M. / Talaksi, Ali / Andrews, Dawn et al. | AIAA | 2021


    Development of a COTS-Based Propulsion System Controller for NASA's Lunar Flashlight CubeSat Mission

    Cavender, Daniel / Smith, Celeste / Peet, Sterling et al. | NTRS | 2021


    Lunar Flashlight CubeSat Mission Overview

    Cavender, Daniel / Sweetser, Ted / Adell, Philippe et al. | NTRS | 2019