IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - March 2020 - 67

Hardgrove et al.
history and a predicted events file; these are used
to generate spacecraft ephemeris reconstruction and
prediction files, navigation tracking requests, maneuver
interface files, and light time files, which are all incorporated into the mission operations planning cycle.
Similarly, the engineering and science teams use their
data products to generate calibration or instrument
requests to submit to the planning cycle, as necessary.
In mid-2019, the LunaH-Map team successfully sent
spacecraft commands from the ASU MOC through the
DSN to the LunaH-Map flight Iris radio and the LunaHMap C&DH. At the same test, the LunaH-Map Iris
radio was characterized in a variety of power and bandwidth configurations, across a large swath of spectral
parameters.
For uplink operations, the mission operations team
uses a suite of custom Python tools to process all scheduling requests into a preliminary schedule. The schedule
is verified against flight rules and resource/limit checks
to ensure the spacecraft is safely able to complete all
requested operations, at which point the necessary command sequences are generated and validated in AIT.
The command format generated by AIT is a Communications Link Transmission Unit (CLTU) which is sent
to the DSN and transmitted to LunaH-Map via the
Space Link Extension-Forward CLTU Service at the
next scheduled satellite contact. While time-critical
anomaly resolution operations may require real-time/
immediate commanding, the spacecraft will nominally
operate via stored command sequences and onboard
event checks.
Throughout the bulk of the mission (the cruise
and transition phases), satellite contacts will only
occur every few days. Operations will be highly automated during this period, relying heavily on limits
monitoring and set point calibration do determine
LunaH-Map's true nominal state of health across all
subsystems. Anomaly resolution will be a joint undertaking between the science, engineering, and navigation teams to ensure the spacecraft stays on course
throughout the mission. During the Science Phase, the
operations tempo will ramp up into a daily cycle of
tasks, including telemetry trending and analysis, data
product generation and delivery, and mission planning.
This will require seamless coordination between all
mission teams and will result in frequent navigation
solutions and knowledge/maneuver updates to the
spacecraft. Several mission and flight readiness exercises, as well as full mission rehearsals between the
ASU MOC and KinetX are planned prior to the first
contact with the spacecraft to ensure the team and
ground data systems are ready for flight. Finally,
when the Science Phase has run its course, the
last mission planning cycle will include a maneuver
interface file from KinetX commanding a burn that
MARCH 2020

will terminally degrade LunaH-Map's orbit into a crash
at the lunar South Pole.

SUMMARY
LunaH-Map is a 6U spacecraft mission currently
planned for launch in late 2020 or early 2021 on
NASA's SLS Artemis-1. LunaH-Map will deploy from
Artemis-1 and use a low-thrust propulsion system to
maneuver into lunar orbit. The spacecraft will then
maneuver into an elliptical, low-altitude perseline orbit
that will enable the mission to spatially isolate and
constrain the hydrogen enrichments within PSRs using
a miniature neutron spectrometer. LunaH-Map will use
a solid iodine ion propulsion system, X-Band
radio communications through the NASA DSN, star
tracker, C&DH and EPS systems from Blue Canyon
Technologies, solar arrays from MMA Designs, LLC,
mission design, and navigation by KinetX. Spacecraft
systems design, integration, qualification, test, and mission operations are performed by ASU, AZ Space
Technologies, and Qwaltec. LunaH-Map is currently
on schedule for delivery of the spacecraft in early-tomid 2020.

REFERENCES
[1] J. R. Arnold, "Ice in the lunar polar regions," J. Geophys.
Res. vol. 84, pp. 5659-5668, 1979.
[2] A. Babuscia, C. Hardgrove, K.-M. Cheung, P. Scowen,
and J. Crowell, "Telecommunications system design for
interplanetary CubeSat mission: LunaH-Map," in Proc.
IEEE Aer. Conf., 2017, pp. 1-9.
[3] K. M. Cheung et al., "Next-generation ground network
architecture for communications and tracking of interplanetary smallsats," in Proc. CubeSat Workshop, Calpoly,
San Luis Obispo, 2015.
[4] R. N. Clark, "Detection of adsorbed water and hydroxyl
on the moon," Science, vol. 326, pp. 562-564, 2009. doi:
10.1126/science.1178105.
[5] A. Colaprete et al., "Detection of water in the LCROSS
ejecta plume," Science, vol. 330, pp. 463-468, 2010.
doi:10.1126/science.1186986
[6] D. H. Crider and R. R. Vondrak, "The solar wind as a possible source of lunar polar hydrogen deposits," JGR-Planets, vol. 105, pp. 26773-26782, 2000. doi: 10.1029/
2000JE001277.
[7] D. H. Crider and R. R. Vondrak, "Hydrogen migration
to the lunar poles by solar wind bombardment of the
moon," Adv. Space Res., vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 1869-
1874, 2002.
[8] C. Duncan, "Iris for INSPIRE CubeSat compatible, DSN

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

compatible transponder," in Proc. 27th Annu. AIAA/USU
Small Satellite Conf., 2013, pp. 1-10.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1178105 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1186986 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2000JE001277 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2000JE001277

IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - March 2020