Smallsats And The Moon: Providing The picks And Shovels For The 21st Century’s Greatest Exploration Endeavour
- Paper number
IAC-07-D3.3.08
- Author
Dr. Adam M. Baker, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Mr. Andy Phipps, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Mr. Phil Davies, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Mr. Alex da Silva Curiel, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Prof. Martin Sweeting, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., United Kingdom
- Year
2007
- Abstract
SSTL and the Surrey Space Centre have been investigating lunar missions since 1996, and have conducted numerous in-house, ESA funded and most recently a nationally funded study for the UK PPARC. This paper examines whether small, affordable spacecraft regularly visiting the Moon and providing useful scientific, commercial and political / social benefits supports the increasing International interest in a permanent presence on the Moon and its use as a stepping stone for deeper space exploration. Is SSTL’s low cost COTS based approach, which has been extensively verified in LEO, applicable to the demanding environment of Lunar orbit and the even more challenging Lunar surface? SSTL has cautiously tested this with some subsystem hardware, including the European Space Agency Rosetta lander momentum wheel, which will stabilise the lander module during its attempt to soft land on the comet. SSTL has also recently completed its OBC695 computer as the payload processor for the Chandrayaan-1 mini-RF radar payload, designed to search for lunar polar volatiles and launching in 2008. SSTL have also celebrated their first mission year beyond LEO with the successful GIOVE-A mission, demonstrating key technologies and securing frequencies for the future Galileo global navigation constellation. Furthermore, 2007 also saw the detailed design of a low cost interplanetary spacecraft platform, capable of delivering a modest (100kg) payload to lunar orbit. SSTL also took a leading role in the UK penetrator consortium, formed to begin the development of a robust, affordable UK penetrator package to address questions of seismology and thermal evolution of the lunar regolith. 2006 and 2007 have also seen growing British interest in the international exploration Lunar programme. The US driven ‘Vision’ with major efforts by India, Japan, Russia and China, who are beginning with robots but have mostly committed to a manned programme implies steadily increasing levels of activity on the Moon in the next decade. The United Kingdom is both a nation with a long heritage for exploration, and one which possesses a strong service driven economy. Mindful of the public interest in both exploration and entrepreneurial activities, but also aware of its own limited space budget, the PPARC agency commissioned SSTL and partners to take a fresh look at the feasibility and value of a UK driven lunar mission launching in the 2010-2011 period. Results from the most recent study will be outlined, covering the two mission concepts, the MoonLITE (Lightweight InTerior Experiment) orbiter and penetrator probes for near surface characterisation, and the follow-on MoonRaker soft lander plus chemical dating package. The focus of this paper will be on the approach taken to build the case for funding MoonLITE and ultimately MoonRaker. A comparison with the Public Private Partnership approach to the UK Skynet V military communications system will be made. A business proposition for similar funding of a series of inexpensive, rapid turnaround lunar missions to deliver valuable services to the international exploration community will be presented for review and comment. Proposed services to generate a return on investment are communications data relay, provision of navigation timing and positioning signals and monitoring of lunar environment data including the state of solar activity. The importance of small spacecraft missions as stepping stones to enable a sustainable, affordable exploration programme: a new paradigm for 21st century space missions will be discussed.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-D3.3.08.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.