(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-05-01)
Medisetti, Jishnu; Lightsey, E. Glenn
With advancements in small satellite technology being seen, these low cost, small form factor
systems are being considered for interplanetary missions. NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory’s (JPL) mission, Lunar Flashlight is a 6U CubeSat which aims to orbit the Lunar
South pole and detect craters for water ice. This mission is a technology demonstration which
hopes to prove the viability of low cost CubeSats for interplanetary missions. This low resource
model for satellites extends to its mission operations as well. Georgia Institute of Technology’s
Space System Design Laboratory has been contracted to perform mission operations for
Lunar Flashlight. The operations team was able to develop and expand the capabilities
Georgia Tech Mission Operations Center (MOC) to support this Lunar mission. Hardware
integration was established to connect various operations machines to each other and the Deep
Space Network. Interfaces were defined between the operations team and external parties
including the Mission Design and Navigation team at JPL. Using the certified MOC, the
operations team was also successfully able to perform and complete their first operational
readiness test which simulated the first phase of the Lunar Flashlight mission.