Small Satellites for Deep Space Scientific Missions

The history of interplanetary exploration has been dominated by missions built around large, bespoke spacecraft. These missions have transformed our understanding of the solar system. However, the approach leads to long and expensive development programmes, which result in the low frequency of flight opportunities. The chance to visit a particular planet to address new science questions with more advanced instrumentation typically comes once per career, and due to the energetic requirements of delivering spacecraft to the outer solar system, exploration of targets beyond the orbit of Saturn has been limited to a single flyby per planet.

In recent years the economics of near-Earth space exploitation have been transformed by the private sector, driven in part by the potential market for satellite mega-constellations. The development of small “off-the-shelf” platforms and subsystems can enable a more responsive approach to missions, and the economies of mass production can drive down costs.

What lessons can interplanetary missions learn from this approach? NASA’s InSight mission was the first to demonstrate interplanetary CubeSats as “ride along” components with the primary spacecraft. This presentation considers how an existing small spacecraft bus with extensive Low Earth Orbit heritage might be adapted to provide an off-the-shelf solution for small satellite interplanetary missions. Novel architectures will be presented, such as multi-satellite launches targeting multiple destinations or science orbits. A discussion of key subsystem considerations will also be presented along with a consideration of future research and development activities, and examples of what missions based on this philosophy, may look like.