After months of delays from technical glitches and two hurricanes, NASA’s Artemis I mission has launched, carrying a cargo of small research satellites — including one from ASU — to the moon and beyond.
The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper, or LunaH, is like a 30-pound toaster oven crammed with everything needed to carry out a satellite mission, from solar panels to iodine-powered ion thrusters.
KJZZ News spoke to principal investigator Craig Hardgrove of ASU in January.
“It's a very small spacecraft that includes all of the parts that you would see on a large spacecraft, just miniaturized,” he said.
Hardgrove explained that the craft is a mix of ready-made components and a scratch-built neutron detector.
“We were able to use designs that had been in place previously and modify them for our application,” he said. “So, we're a blend of a traditional off-the-shelf CubeSat and something that absolutely needs to be customized for deep space.”
That includes a spectrometer that will detect neutrons that have interacted with lunar hydrogen.
Finding such neutrons will provide a map of possible water locations to be explored by future missions.
