Mission type | Technology |
---|---|
Website | team |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Team Miles |
Spacecraft type | 6U CubeSat |
Manufacturer | Fluid and Reason LLC |
Launch mass | 14 kg (31 lb) |
Dimensions | 10×20×30 cm |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 2021[1] |
Rocket | SLS Block 1 |
Launch site | Kennedy LC-39B |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Heliocentric (Earth-trailing) |
Flyby of Moon | |
Transponders | |
Band | S band |
Team Miles is a type of nanosatellite called 6-Unit CubeSat that will demonstrate navigation in deep space using innovative plasma thrusters. It will also test a software-defined radio operating in the S band for communications from about 4 million kilometers from Earth.
Team Miles will be one of thirteen CubeSats to be carried with the Artemis 1 mission into a heliocentric orbit in cislunar space on the maiden flight of the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, scheduled to launch in 2021.
Parameter | Units/performance |
---|---|
Thrust | 5 mN |
Specific impulse (Isp) | 760 sec |
Impulse | 7456 N sec |
Power | 22 W |
Wet mass | 1.5 kg |
Propellant mass | 1 kg |
Propellant | Solid iodine |
Thrust:Mass | 3.3 mN/kg |
Impulse:Power | 338 N sec/W |
Delta-V 12 kg craft | 649 m/s |
The spacecraft, a 6-Unit CubeSat —measuring 10×20×30 cm— was designed and is being developed by a non-profit group of fifteen citizen scientists and engineers (Fluid and Reason, LLC) based at Tampa, Florida.[2][3][4] Since the Team Miles won the first place at CubeQuest Challenge for the selection process,[5] Fluid and Reason, LLC stroke partnerships and became Miles Space, a commercial endeavor to further develop the technology and intellectual property that has come out of the design process.[2]
Wesley Faler, who leads Fluid and Reason, LLC., is the inventor of the ion thruster to be used, which he calls ConstantQ Model H.[6][2] It is a form of electric propulsion for spacecraft. The engine is a hybrid plasma and laser thruster that uses ionized iodine as propellant.[7][4]
The Model H system includes 4 thruster heads which are canted, allowing for both primary propulsion and attitude control (orientation) without the use of moving parts.[6][8] The goal within the CubeQest Challenge is to travel 4 million kilometers, but the team will attempt to go as far as 96 million kilometers before the end of the mission.[2]
The spacecraft will use the USRP B200mini, a software-defined radio operating in the S band for communications from about 4 million kilometers from Earth.[9]