ROOM
22
Special Report
at its required temperature of 120 K, the mission
will demonstrate the first use of a compact
cryocooler on a cubesat platform.
The LunarIceCube project is led by Morehead
State University, with significant contributions
from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and
Busek Corporation. The science lead is Pam
Clark of JPL.
Exploring Venus
Although spacecraft from Earth have visited
Venus many times, our nearest neighbour is still
shrouded in mystery. Cupid’s Arrow, a mission
concept for a free-flyer nanosat probe, launched
directly from Earth towards Venus, was recently
funded for study by NASA to unravel some of
those mysteries. The mission study is led by
JPL scientist Christophe Sotin. It targets very
high priority science - measuring the relative
abundances of neon, argon, helium, krypton and
other ‘noble’ gases to understand how Venus’
atmosphere formed and has evolved.
To be truly representative of these noble
gases and their isotopic ratios, a sample of
the atmosphere has to be acquired where the
atmosphere is well-mixed: which for Venus is
below 120 km altitude.
Cupid’s Arrow samples Venus’ atmosphere
using a compact, yet very precise, gas analyser
LunarIceCube’s
elaborate low-thrust
trajectory (diagram above)
places it into a final
mapping orbit at the
Moon.
NASA/JPL
