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Spacecraft
LunIR (Lunar InfraRed Imaging , formerly known as SkyFire ) is a
nanosatellite spacecraft launched to the
Moon collecting surface
spectroscopy and
thermography . It was launched as a secondary payload on the
Artemis 1 mission on 16 November 2022.
[1]
[2]
Mission
LunIR is a technology demonstration mission funded by NASA that uses a low-cost 6U
CubeSat spacecraft. LunIR will perform a lunar flyby, collecting spectroscopy and thermography for surface characterization,
remote sensing , and site selection.
[3] The spacecraft includes two deployable
solar panels and will have a total mass of about 14 kg (31 lb).
LunIR was selected in April 2015 by NASA's NextSTEP program (
Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships ) and awarded a contract to
Lockheed Martin Space worth US$1.4 million for further development.
[4]
[5]
[6]
LunIR will communicate with Earth via ground stations operated by
Kongsberg Satellite Services . LunIR will use 13-meter-diameter radio antennas located in
Punta Arenas, Chile ;
Svalbard, Norway ; and
Troll station, Antarctica .
[7]
[8]
Launch
LunIR was launched as one of ten
CubeSats as a secondary payload on the maiden flight of the
Space Launch System ,
Artemis 1 .
[2]
Propulsion
LunIR will demonstrate a low thrust electric propulsion technology called
electrospray propulsion to lower the spacecraft's orbit for additional science and technology mission objectives.
[9]
See also
The 10
CubeSats flying in the
Artemis 1 mission
The three CubeSat missions removed from Artemis 1
References
^
a
b Roulette, Joey; Gorman, Steve (16 November 2022).
"NASA's next-generation Artemis mission heads to moon on debut test flight" . Reuters . Retrieved 16 November 2022 .
^
a
b Clark, Stephen (12 October 2021).
"Adapter structure with 10 CubeSats installed on top of Artemis moon rocket" . Spaceflight Now . Retrieved 22 October 2021 .
^ Williams, Greg; Crusan, Jason (April 2015).
"Pioneering Space – Evolvable Mars Campaign" (PDF) . NASA. Retrieved 9 March 2021 . This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain .
^ Morring, Frank (24 April 2015).
"Habitats Could Be NASA's Next Commercial Spacecraft Buy" . Aviation Week. Retrieved 26 May 2015 .
^ Clark, Stephen (8 April 2015).
"NASA adding to list of CubeSats flying on first SLS mission" . Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 9 March 2021 .
^ Krebs, Gunter (18 May 2020).
"LunIR (SkyFire)" . Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 9 March 2021 .
^
"KSAT to support NASA LunIR mission" . SpaceNews . 10 February 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2022 .
^
"KSAT to provide Ground Network support for the LunIR mission" . www.ksat.no . Archived from
the original on 14 February 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2022 .
^
"Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Projects" . NASA. 5 May 2015. Archived from
the original on 18 August 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2021 . This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain .
Exploration programs Active missions
Orbiters Landers Rovers Flybys
Past missions
Planned missions
Proposed missions
Cancelled / concepts Related
Missions are ordered by launch date. Crewed missions are in italics .
January
Starlink G4-5 (49 satellites)
ION-SCV 004 (
LabSat ,
STORK-1 ,
STORK-2 ,
SW1FT ),
Capella 7 ,
Capella 8 ,
ICEYE X14 ,
ICEYE X16 ,
USA-320 ,
USA-321 ,
USA-322 ,
USA-323 ,
DEWA SAT-1 ,
Flock 4x × 44,
Kepler × 4,
Lemur-2 × 5,
Nepal PQ-1
Lemur-2 Krywe ,
STORK-3 ,
TechEdSat-13 ,
Unicorn-1 ,
Unicorn-2 × 4
Shiyan 13
Starlink G4-6 (49 satellites)
USA-324 /
GSSAP-5 ,
USA-325 /
GSSAP-6
CSG-2
February March April May
SpaceBEE × 16,
SpaceBEE NZ × 8,
Unicorn-2F
Jilin-1 Kuanfu-01C ,
Jilin-1 Gaofen-03D × 7
Starlink G4-17 (53 satellites)
Tianzhou 4
Jilin-1 Mofang-01A †
Starlink G4-13 (53 satellites)
Starlink G4-15 (53 satellites)
Starlink G4-18 (53 satellites)
Kosmos 2556 / Bars-M 3L
Boe OFT-2
ION-SCV 006 (
SBUDNIC ),
SHERPA AC1 ,
Vigoride-3 ,
ICEYE × 5,
ÑuSat × 4,
Lemur-2 × 5,
Platform 1 ,
PTD-3
June July August September October November
LDPE-2 ,
USA-339 / Shepherd Demonstration,
USA-340 ,
USA-341 ,
USA-344 / USUVL
Kosmos 2563 /
EKS-6
Hotbird 13G
MATS
ChinaSat 19
Cygnus NG-18 (
SpaceTuna1 )
NOAA-21 ,
LOFTID
Yunhai-3 01
Tianzhou 5
Galaxy 31 ,
Galaxy 32
Yaogan 34-03
Jilin-1 Gaofen-03D × 5
Artemis 1 (
ArgoMoon ,
BioSentinel ,
CuSP ,
EQUULEUS ,
LunaH-Map ,
Lunar IceCube ,
LunIR ,
Near-Earth Asteroid Scout ,
OMOTENASHI ,
Team Miles )
Eutelsat 10B
EOS-06 /
Oceansat-3 ,
Astrocast × 4
SpaceX CRS-26
Yaogan 36-03 (3 satellites)
Kosmos 2564 /
GLONASS-M
761
Shenzhou 15
Kosmos 2565 / Lotos-S1 №6 (
Kosmos 2566 )
Oceansat-3
December Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).