NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I AwardAmount: $125,000 Flat Fabrication of Progressively Self-Assembling Space Systems Davide GuzzettiAuburn University This project aims to study the feasibility of integrating an array of microchips with space satellite functions, or ChipSats, on a multifunctional shape memory polymer (SMP) bus that is capable of self-folding when exposed to solar radiation. This technology may enable the flat fabrication of kilometer-sized antenna arrays for radio astronomy […]
TAG
“ChipSats”
Artist conception of exploring Europa with ChipSats. (Credit: Draper Laboratory)
CAMBRIDGE, MA (Draper Laboratory PR) — Draper Laboratory is developing a low-cost concept for NASA that could accelerate the space agency’s ability to explore other planets by combining orbiting survey missions and follow-on landing studies into a single mission.
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program announced on June 5 that it had awarded Draper a $100,000 contract to study the concept of using cold atom sensing technology to enable a cubesat to take gravity measurements over Jupiter’s moon Europa to spot areas of interest – like water – and then eject a batch of tiny ChipSats to land and take close observations and samples on the surface.
CHAMPAGNE Rings Explorer (Credit: Keck Institute for Space Studies)
Last month, the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) at the California Institute of Technology released a report titled, “Small Satellites: A Revolution in Space Science,” which examines the sorts of missions types of missions that could be with rapidly evolving small satellites. The potential missions described in the report cover planetary science (moons, asteroids, etc.), astrophysics and heliophysics.
The planetary science missions include the use of mother ships that would deploy CubeSats and impactors to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, tens of thousands of ChipSats to characterize Saturn’s rings, landing vehicles to explore asteroids, and small spacecraft that would map the moon’s interior and search for volatiles and organics.