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An artist's rendering of the twin Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft flying over Mars with Earth in the distance. The MarCOs was the first CubeSats -- a kind of modular, mini-satellite -- flown in deep space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
JEM Small Satellite Orbital Deployer #11 (J-SSOD #11) micro-satellite deployment mission. 3 small satellites are placed in orbit. Credit: NASA JSC
By Takada
In the past, satellites have been huge, heavy things full of electronics. But these satellites are expensive to make and launch, usually requiring years of development.
Cube satellites are a subdivision of small satellites; they have a standardized unit of size “U” which is 10 cm x 10 cm x 10cm. They can be 1-6 “U” in size. As of mid 2018, 2 have been sent to Mars (pictured above). Small satellites are being used to augment and replace larger systems due to how cheap and easy making them is. They take much less time to develop leading to new breakthroughs faster. And we have been launching them at rather impressive rates. NASA even had a launch initiative to get a cubesat launched from each state.
When the lander InSight was sent to Mars, there was a problem. Relaying data back to Earth right after landing would be difficult because the mars orbiting satellite would not be in the right position to relay information from the lander.
The solution was to send 2 small satellites called MarCOs (Mars Cube One) along for the ride. Both MARCO-A and MARCO-B actually made it all the way from Earth orbit to Mars under their own power using a compressed gas similar to a fire extinguisher.
An engineer tests MarCO in sunlight. Credit: NASA JPL
Both MarCOs survived the journey and did their jobs to relay information back to Earth after the first few minutes of InSight's landing.
The hope is that more small satillites like the MarCOs can make learning about space much less expensive and that small satellites could be used more in the future for deep space missions.
VID_20200505_091559.mp4Resources: The First Cubesats to Mars Were Almost Lost Upon Arrival, MarCO (Mars Cube One), CubeSat Mars Cube One (MarCOP), Nanosats.eu, CubeSats Overview, CubeSats: Tiny Payloads, Huge Benefits for Space Research, Small satellites an overview and assessment, CubeSat Launch Initiative: 50 CubeSats from 50 States in 5 Years
MarCO-B, one of the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats, took this image of Mars from about 4,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) away during its flyby of the Red Planet on Nov. 26, 2018. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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