INSPIRE A, B

INSPIRE [NASA]

The INSPIRE (Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In a Relevant Environment) mission is a two satellite mission to demonstrate the usefulness of cubesats for functionality, communication, navigation and payload hosting in interplanetary space.

INSPIRE is a NASA JPL partnership with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; and the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with Goldstone-Apple Valley Radio Telescope.

The satellites are built to the 3U-CubeSat form factor and feature a cold gas attitude control system. They will be launched piggyback and deployed to an escape trajectory.

The mission objectives are:

• Demonstrate and characterize key nano-spacecraft telecommunications, navigation, command and data handling, and relay communications for mother-daughter
• Demonstrate science utility with compact science payload (Helium Magnetometer and combination Star-Tracker/Imager)
• Demonstrate ability to monitor and power cycle COTS/university processing systems

The objective is to place both nanosatellites into an Earth-escape orbit. The nominal INSPIRE mission will last for three months and will achieve an expected Earth-probe distance of 1.5 × 10⁸ km (depending upon the escape velocity).