WIS•DOM

WAYFINDER IN SPACE • DESCENDING ONTO MOON

MISSION STATEMENT: This mission will perform a controlled landing of a CubeSat form-factor spacecraft from lunar orbit to lunar surface and demonstrate the potential to act as a rideshare platform for research experiments.

MISSION OVERVIEW & REQUIREMENTS

The WIS•DOM spacecraft will be designed such that it can reach lunar orbit via the Artemis II rideshare program. The spacecraft will therefore be a 12U CubeSat (30 x 20 x 20 cm) in order to fit on-board Artemis II while maximizing the volume available to secondary spacecraft. The WIS•DOM spacecraft will complete 5 orbits around the moon before beginning its descent to the lunar surface. After touching down to the lunar surface in a soft, controlled manner, the onboard payload will have at minimum 10 Earth days to operate. The payload will be allotted a minimum of 200 cm² external facing surface area and an internal volume of 1000 cm³. The payload will also be provided with power, a communications link, state of health sensors, and a processor for operations on the lunar surface.

THE TEAM

SAMANTHA CARLOWICZ

Project Manager
Payload
Thermal
Structures & Mechanisms

CALEB BURLISON

Propulsion

MEGAN ESTRADA

Power
Communications
Command & Data Handling

CLAIRE SCHUESSLER

Attitude Determination & Control
Orbital Mechanics

MOTIVATION

SHOW THAT CONTROLLED LANDING ON THE MOON IS POSSIBLE ON A SMALL SCALE
MAKE SPACE MORE ACCESSIBLE TO A WIDER RANGE OF PEOPLE

MISSION PATCH & NAME

Just as NASA draws inspiration from Greek mythology, so too does this mission in its namesake. Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom, and therefore lends her relation to Apollo and Artemis in the mission’s historic and future ties to lunar missions as well as her symbolic animal, the owl.

Additionally, the owl was chosen to pay homage to "the Eagle" of the Apollo 11 mission. Small, yet fierce, the owl represents the transition from the large lunar vehicles of the Apollo era to the small space vehicles of the future.

The blue color of the surrounding ring, as well as the fleur-de-lis, represent the home university of the mission designers, Saint Louis University. The split-color beak of the owl also mirrors the split-color nose of the Saint Louis University Billiken mascot. The yellow of the owl's eyes, symbolic of hope, represent the forward-looking, hopeful vision of the mission as a driving force for accessible space.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The WIS•DOM team would like to thank Dr. Srikanth Gururajan and Dr. Sanjay Jayaram for providing the opportunity to shoot for the moon in this ambitious undertaking. The team would also like to thank Dan Reczek for his review of the mission and assistance in filling in knowledge gaps, particularly in the propulsion system design. The team thanks Dr. Swartwout for teaching us almost everything we know about space mission analysis and design, Dr. Lei for his help with FEA, and to Matthew Batchelor for his assistance in the spacecraft thermal analysis. Lastly, the WIS•DOM team would like to thank Sebastian Sanchez: without his guidance and wisdom, WIS•DOM would never have evolved into the design it is today.

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