SFL Missions Inc. is part of a team that was awarded a concept study by the European Space Agency (ESA) for a moon mapping satellite called Moonraker.
The team is led by NUVIEW GmbH a Berlin based subsidiary of NUVIEW Inc. who are developing a space-based LiDAR constellation for 3D mapping of the Earth. The parent company NUVIEW Inc. is based headquartered in Orlando, Florida.
SFL Missions Inc. is the new commercial spinoff from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies Space Flight Laboratory. This is the second commercial contract awarded to SFL Missions this year, the other was for the Canadian Space Agency’s HAWC mission.
According the news release, “The Moonraker mission will consist of a single orbiter operating in a low-altitude polar orbit around the Moon. The orbiter will host a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) payload to capture highly accurate elevation points of the terrain. These points will be used to generate 3D elevation models that will be relied upon to assess and select future landing sites.”
As to SFL Missions role, Jesse Eyer, NUVIEW Space Missions Architect said, “As part of the Pre-Phase A contract led by NUVIEW, SFL Missions is supporting the mission concept by contributing to transit trajectory analysis, orbit design, and satellite platform conceptual design for Moonraker. We’re proud to collaborate on advancing this visionary lunar LiDAR initiative.”
SFL Missions in the news release added, “The mission analysis evaluates possible launch options and trajectories for efficiently entering into lunar orbit, and it studies how the operational orbit parameters impact the spacecraft design and payload data collection. The system design focuses on payload accommodation, spacecraft layout, and sizing of the various subsystem components. In particular, the propulsion system is sized with the appropriate amount of fuel to complete the transit phase and then maintain the operational orbit while counteracting perturbations caused by the Moon’s irregular gravity field. Detailed mission and system requirements are also developed to guide future design phases for the project.”
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