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posted by martyb on Monday June 04 2018, @03:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the will-the-next-mission-have-Polo-A-and-Polo-B? dept.

NASA CubeSats Steer Toward Mars

NASA has achieved a first for the class of tiny spacecraft known as CubeSats, which are opening new access to space. Over the past week, two CubeSats called MarCO-A and MarCO-B have been firing their propulsion systems to guide themselves toward Mars. This process, called a trajectory correction maneuver, allows a spacecraft to refine its path to Mars following launch. Both CubeSats successfully completed this maneuver; NASA's InSight spacecraft just completed the same process on May 22.

The pair of CubeSats that make up the Mars Cube One (MarCO) mission both launched on May 5, along with the InSight lander, which is headed toward a Nov. 26 touchdown on the Red Planet. They were designed to trail InSight on the way to Mars, aiming to relay back data about InSight as it enters the planet's atmosphere and attempts to land. The MarCOs were never intended to collect any science data; instead, they are a test of miniaturized communication and navigation technology that can blaze a path for future CubeSats sent to other planets.

[...] While MarCO-A corrected its course to Mars relatively smoothly, MarCO-B faced some unexpected challenges. Its maneuver was smaller due to a leaky thruster valve that engineers have been monitoring for the past several weeks. The leak creates small trajectory changes on its own. Engineers have factored in these nudges so that MarCO-B can still perform a trajectory correction maneuver. It will take several more weeks of tracking to refine these nudges so that MarCO-B can follow InSight on its cruise through space.

Previously: NASA Launches InSight Mission to Study the Interior of Mars
CubeSats -- En Route to Mars with InSight -- Snap Another "Pale Blue Dot" Image


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 04 2018, @08:45PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday June 04 2018, @08:45PM (#688560) Journal

    Its surprising really that one limiter to space missions isn't money to build rockets or tech to build probes but reserved pad time to launch the darn things. Doesn't matter how cheap space-x makes a launch if you can only launch X times per year per pad. And if you think people bitch about supersonic flight try convincing some HOA-suffering mcmansion owners to put up with a new spaceport making daily moon launches or whatever. Good luck.

    SpaceX has 3 launch facilities lined up and is building its fourth:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX#Launch_facilities [wikipedia.org]

    Launch pace was 18 launches for SpaceX last year, and 11 so far in 2018:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches [wikipedia.org]

    They could reach as many as 28-29 this year. Or maybe they will add on a couple to hit 30 for PR.

    At the top of the page is a breakdown by launch site.

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