LunIR

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.^[1][2]

LunIR

The LunIR CubeSat, which will characterize and collect lunar surface data.
Names	SkyFire
Mission type	Technology demonstrator, reconnaissance
Operator	Lockheed Martin Space
COSPAR ID	2022-156K
SATCAT no.	57686
Mission duration	2 years, 8 months and 25 days (in progress)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	CubeSat
Spacecraft type	6U CubeSat
Bus	Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems
Manufacturer	Lockheed Martin Space
Launch mass	14 kg (31 lb)
Dimensions	10 cm × 20 cm × 30 cm
Start of mission
Launch date	16 November 2022, 06:47:44 UTC[1]
Rocket	SLS Block 1
Launch site	KSC, LC-39B
Contractor	NASA
Flyby of Moon
NextSTEP program

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.^[3] The spacecraft includes two deployable solar panels and will have a total mass of about 14 kg (31 lb).

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.^[4][5][6]

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.^[7][8]

Launch

LunIR was launched as one of ten CubeSats as a secondary payload on the maiden flight of the Space Launch System, Artemis 1.^[2]

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.^[9]

See also

• Spaceflight portal

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