Lockheed Martin Space Systems has been selected to design two small spacecraft for a deep-space mission led by the University of Colorado Boulder to explore two asteroids orbiting a common center of mass.
The mission, called Janus, is one of three finalists out of an original 12 considered for NASA’s Small Innovative Mission for Planetary Exploration program, designed to use small spacecraft of less than 400 pounds. The mission, led by principal investigator and CU professor Dan Scheeres, would employ two suitcase-sized satellites equipped with both visible and infrared cameras to take images of the asteroids.
Lockheed and CU will finalize the details of the mission and spacecraft design for NASA, which will decide which mission or missions will move ahead to launch. The small Janus satellites would launch in 2022 to reach the asteroid system in 2026.
“We are excited to partner with University of Colorado on this challenging mission to be among the first small (satellites) to return science data from beyond Earth orbit,” Chris McCaa, Janus program manager at Lockheed Martin Space, said in a statement Thursday. “Janus will provide the opportunity to blend our long heritage of mission success in deep space with the small sat paradigm, helping to pave the way for a new generation of deep space explorers.”
The mission would investigate how binary asteroids form and evaluate theories of how the constantly changing systems evolve.
If selected for the final stage, Lockheed Martin Space will design and build the spacecraft and provide mission operations after launch. Malin Space Science Systems will provide the instrument suite, including visible and infrared cameras.
The selected investigations will be managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama as part of the Solar System Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
