Assembly, Integration, and Testing of a
Green Monopropellant Propulsion System
for NASA’s Lunar Flashlight Mission
Author(s)
Littleton, Lacey M.
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Abstract
Lunar Flashlight is a NASA 6U CubeSat that will orbit the moon. The objective of the
mission is to investigate deep, permanently shaded craters for surface level water-ice. The
satellite will be equipped with a 2.5U green monopropellant propulsion system (LFPS) capable
of injecting the satellite into lunar orbit from a free return trajectory. This propulsion system
will enable Lunar Flashlight to be the first CubeSat to be placed into orbit around a body
other than Earth and will provide flight heritage for multiple micro-scale propulsion
technologies that are on board. Design, manufacturing, integration, and testing of the
propulsion system has been a joint effort between the Georgia Tech Space Systems Design
Laboratory, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Assembly of any space system requires extreme care, but the small size of the LFPS makes
precision integration particularly important. All of the components were subject to tight
tolerancing, and most had to be assembled in a Class 100,000 clean room. As parts were
successfully integrated, a simultaneous testing campaign was performed to confirm
dimensional requirements, establish bursting pressures, check for leaks, ensure electrical
liveliness, and determine flight-like performance.
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Date
2021-08-01
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Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Masters Project
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