LunIR (Lunar InfraRed Imaging, formerly known as SkyFire) is a nanosatellite spacecraft launched to the Moon collecting surface spectroscopy and thermography. It was launched as a secondary payload on the Artemis 1 mission on 16 November 2022.
Mission LunIR is a technology demonstration mission funded by NASA that uses a low-cost 6U CubeSat spacecraft. LunIR will perform a lunar flyby, collecting spectroscopy and thermography for surface characterization, remote sensing, and site selection. The spacecraft includes two deployable solar panels and will have a total mass of about .
LunIR was selected in April 2015 by NASA's NextSTEP program (Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships) and awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Space worth US$1.4 million for further development.
LunIR will communicate with Earth via ground stations operated by Kongsberg Satellite Services. LunIR will use 13-meter-diameter radio antennas located in Punta Arenas, Chile; Svalbard, Norway; and Troll station, Antarctica.
Launch LunIR was launched as one of ten CubeSats as a secondary payload on the maiden flight of the Space Launch System, Artemis 1.
Propulsion LunIR will demonstrate a low thrust electric propulsion technology called electrospray propulsion to lower the spacecraft's orbit for additional science and technology mission objectives.
See also
The 10 CubeSats flying in the Artemis 1 mission Near-Earth Asteroid Scout by NASA was a solar sail spacecraft that was planned to encounter a near-Earth asteroid (mission failure) BioSentinel is an astrobiology mission LunIR by Lockheed Martin Space Lunar IceCube, by the Morehead State University CubeSat for Solar Particles (CuSP) Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map), designed by the Arizona State University EQUULEUS, submitted by JAXA and the University of Tokyo OMOTENASHI, submitted by JAXA, was a lunar lander (mission failure) ArgoMoon, designed by Argotec and coordinated by Italian Space Agency (ASI) Team Miles, by Fluid and Reason LLC, Tampa, Florida
The three CubeSat missions removed from Artemis 1 Lunar Flashlight will map exposed water ice on the Moon Cislunar Explorers, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Earth Escape Explorer (CU-E3), University of Colorado Boulder
References