Abstract
French involvement in affordable deep space missions has been illustrated over the last few years by the accomplishments of the Philae lander in 2014 and by the mission of the MASCOT lander, developed with DLR, which was delivered on October 3, 2018, by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 probe on asteroid Ryugu. The value of CNES dedicated engineering skills, such as mission analysis for the descent to small bodies, and of French laboratories’ know-how in the development of high-performance miniaturized instruments has been demonstrated on both missions. It will be put into practice again through CNES’ contribution to JAXA’s MMX mission to Phobos in 2024, and more mission concepts are also being defined in partnership with major space agencies. In addition, CNES is also in charge of deep space instrument operations, notably at the moment for two NASA’s Mars missions, the Curiosity rover and the InSight lander. This general background will be elaborated in this article, together with French early microsatellite achievements through the Myriade family and with recent CubeSat development that culminated on December 18, 2019, with the simultaneous launch of the ANGELS 12 U Argos NEO demonstrator and of the EyeSat 3 U student astronomy spacecraft.
The second part of the presentation will elaborate on mission architectures for the most promising concepts that CNES has studied or been associated to where CubeSat class probes offer an advantage in terms of affordability, efficiency, and capacity to take risks. In some cases, typically between Venus and Mars, the small probes can operate as stand-alone missions of their own within the inner solar system. Alternatively, they can also augment larger missions to the most remote and challenging destinations in the solar system.
While microsatellites are affordable, and increasingly more capable, they should not be considered as a replacement for more traditional missions that require multiple coordinated measurements to accomplish their science investigation goal. Additionally, larger spacecraft remain far more powerful and can go to more remote locations and survive longer-duration missions and challenging deep space environments. Under many circumstances, however, large spacecraft can benefit greatly from the risk capacity provided by small probes that can be added on and from the multipoint capacity that they can provide.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
S. Barde, F. Jocteur, Science & Exploration Ground segments: New challenges seen from CNES, presented at the ESA/ESO SCIOPS Workshop 2017 in Madrid
C. Bastien-Thiry, L. Privat, Taranis mission, presented at the 4th COSPAR symposium on Small satellites for sustainable science and development, Herzliya, Israel – November 4–8, 2019
P.W. Bousquet, G. Vane, J. Baker, J. Castillo-Rogez, C. Raymond, Planetary cubesats: Mission architectures, IAC-17-A3.1.7
C. Briois et al., Orbitrap mass analyzer for in situ characterization of planetary environments: Performance evaluation of a laboratory prototype. Planet. Space Sci. 131, 33–45 (2016)
A. Buch, V.T. Pinnick, C. Szopa, N. Grand et al., MOMA Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer onboard the 2018 ExoMars Mission: prototype results and performance, 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2015)
I. Carnelli, P. Michel, M. Küppers, P. Martino, Hera: European Component of the Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) Mission to the Binary Asteroid Didymos, presented at the 13th IAA Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference, Toulouse, France – June 3–5, 2019
Cubesat in support of MSR/MSR pathfinder concept in LEO, ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO9916
D. Gaudin et al., Preliminary design of a CubeSat for plume sampling and imaging at Europa, 6th Interplanetary CubeSat Workshop, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 30–31 May 2017
D. Hestroffer et al., BIRDY: An interplanetary CubeSat to Small Solar System Bodies, iCUBESAT conference, Milano, May 28–29, 2019
G. Jones, Comet Interceptor: A proposed ESA Mission to a Dynamically New Comet, presented at the 13th IAA Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference, Toulouse, France – June 3–5, 2019
A. Klesh, MarCO – Trailblazing Interplanetary Small Science, presented at the 4th COSPAR symposium on Small satellites for sustainable science and development, Herzliya, Israel – November 4–8, 2019
P. Landiech, P. Rodrigues, Overview on CNES Micro Satellites Missions: In Flight, Under Development and Next, ed. by R. Sandau et al. Small Satellite Missions for Earth Observation, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03501-2_1, (C©Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010)
F. Leblanc et al., Network of small satellites for the exploration of planetary Magnetosphere (NETSSEM), presented at the 13th IAA Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference, Toulouse, France – June 3–5, 2019
L. Lorda, E. Canalias, T. Martin, R. Garmier, A. Moussi, An Overview of the CNES Expertise in Flight Dynamics Analyses For Landing on Small Bodies, presented at the 13th IAA Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference, Toulouse, France – June 3–5, 2019
O. Marsal et al., The Netlander geophysical network on the surface of Mars: General mission description and technical design status. Acta Astronaut. 51(1–9), 379–386 (2002)
F. Montmessin et al, Roadmap Mars, Solar System French Working Group report presented to CNES, 2016
A. Moussi et al., CNES support to HAYABUSA2-MASCOT operations, SpaceOps Conference, Marseille, France, May 28 – June 1, 2018
N. Murdoch, S. Hempel, S.L. Pou, A. Cadu, R. Garcia, et al., Probing the internal structure of the asteroid Didymoon with a passive seismic investigation. Planet. Space Sci. Elsevier, 144, 89–105 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2017.05.005. hal-01593477
C. Royer, J.P. Bibring et al., The MacrOmega Instrument On-Board MMX, an Ultra-Compact NIR Hyperspectral Imager Based on AOTF Technology: Preliminary Tests on a Breadboard, 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2132)
M. Sudars, M. Regnier, IRENA Flight Demonstrators, deliverable 2.2 of the IRENA project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, Ref. Ares(2016)1643756 – 07/04/2016
S. Tardivel, C. Lange, The MMX Rover: An Innovative Design Enabling Phobos In-Situ Exploration, presented at the 13th IAA Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference, Toulouse, France – June 3–5, 2019
H. Tra-Mi et al., The landing and in-situ observation of (162173) Ryugu by the MASCOT lander, 70th International Astronautical Congress, Washington DC, IAC-19-A3.4A.6
C. Virmontois et al., A Micro-Class Lunar Rover Mission To Image Imbrium Lava Flows, presented at the 13th IAA Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference, Toulouse, France – June 3–5, 2019
L. Walker et al., Nanospacecraft Exploration of Asteroids by Collision and flyby Reconnaissance (NEACORE), presented at the 13th IAA Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference, Toulouse, France – June 3–5, 2019
R.C. Wiens, S. Maurice et al., The Supercam Remote Sensing Instrument Suite For Mars 2020, 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2016)
H. Yano, Hayabusa 2 as a Low Cost Planetary Mission Enhanced by Micro-sat/rover Contributions, invited presentation to the 13th IAA Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference, Toulouse, France – June 3–5, 2019
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bousquet, P. (2020). French Space Programs for CubeSats and Small Scientific Research Probes to Deep Space. In: Pelton, J. (eds) Handbook of Small Satellites. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20707-6_102-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20707-6_102-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20707-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20707-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering