Deep Space STEM Mission Background

In 2017 Miles Space was awarded a ride on NASA’s Space Launch System EM-1 mission along with two other winners as part of NASA’s CubeQuest Challenge. Miles Space will be demonstrating its sophisticated onboard computer system that will be autonomously flying the CubeSat, as well as its ConstantQ water propelled pulsed plasma thruster.

In late 2017 Miles Space dedicated a 1/2U volume (55x128x100mm) of their spacecraft to a deep space STEM mission led by Destination SPACE. Working with Miles Space, NearSpace Launch, and Twiggs Space Lab, this will become the first deep space STEM mission. This STEM sensor suite, called the ExoSat includes several instruments that will be used to monitor space weather on the Miles CubeSat as it travels over 95 million kilometers away from the Earth. For reference Mars gets as close as 54 million kilometers from Earth. Some of the sensors that are included on this momentous mission are listed below.

2018 brought us more progress on this mission including our team traveling down to Tampa, Florida to test fit the ExoSat engineering model in the main CubeSat bus. In addition, internship opportunities for two of our staff members, Austin Gleydura and Lauren Ballard were established. During this time they were familiarized with the CubeSat, completing documentation, and Computer Aided Design (CAD) work.

In 2019 work on the CubeSat continued with static structural, random vibration, and thermal Finite Element Analyses (FEA) being preformed to ensure that the CubeSat will meet NASA’s standards as well as other CAD designs.

2020 included additional FEA analyses, calculating and beginning to write software to decode the data packets retrieved from the ExoSat, including image processing of the Grid-EYE camera data. In November Austin returned to Miles Space in Tampa to re-flash the firmware for the ExoSat.

In 2021 factor of safety calculations were done to ensure that the CubeSat meets final requirements for NASA. In July the Miles CubeSat traveled to Kennedy Space Center to be integrated into the launch deployer, where it was eventually integrated into the Orion Stage Adapter (OSA) and the Orion Stage being fully integrated onto SLS by the end of the year.

2022 brings many exciting milestones for the mission, including the first rollout and wet dress rehearsal of the rocket in March, setting the stage for a summer launch later this year in June/July.

What’s Next?

After the Artemis-I launch The Miles Space CubeSat will be deployed following the separation of the Orion capsule at Bus Stop 2 + 1 hour. The CubeSat will then have 200 days to compete for the farthest distance prize and will be deactivated 1 year after launch. Data from the ExoSat will be periodically sent back to Earth during this time where it will then be processed by NASA, Miles Space, and Destination SPACE. After the data is processed we will then release our data publicly with educators and students that wish to be involved on our Discord Server. These are exciting times, and we will continue to provide updates as we get closer to launch.