A chart of NASA rideshares from a recent rideshare symposium showed this flight with an ESPA Grande ring for the rideshares. The trajectory column said "L1, C3 max <= -0.5, 28deg incl"
QuoteThe secondary payloads to be included with the launch of IMAP are: NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission, two additional NASA heliophysics missions of opportunity yet to be named, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) mission.
The secondary payloads to be included with the launch of IMAP are: NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission, two additional NASA heliophysics missions of opportunity yet to be named, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) mission.
"Kon-Tiki will be co-manifested with the NASA Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission in 2024. Carried to space on a secondary payload adapter, Kon-Tiki will separate after the IMAP deployment on an Earth escape trajectory."
A couple notes from this morning’s NASA Planetary Science Advisory Cmte meeting:• Lunar Trailblazer has passed confirmation review, on track to launch with IMAP in early 2025 (was late 2024)• Artemis 3 science definition team final report to be released as soon as today.
The total cost for NASA to launch IMAP and the secondary payloads is approximately $109.4 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs.
Quote from: gongora on 09/25/2020 08:52 pmThe total cost for NASA to launch IMAP and the secondary payloads is approximately $109.4 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs.This is not particularly cheap.
JUST IN: We’ve selected 2 new small satellite missions that'll expand our research & test new technologies in space. Congratulations to GLIDE & Solar Cruiser! These missions will share a ride to space in 2025 with the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). Pairing them with existing missions for launch allows us to provide more avenues for learning about our solar system & to develop innovative technical capabilities.GLIDE is the 1st mission exclusively dedicated to studying Earth’s outermost atmospheric layer - the exosphere. It'll provide measurements of this vast cloud that extends almost halfway to the Moon. Congrats to Principal Investigator Dr. Lara Waldrop at University of Illinois.Solar Cruiser will demonstrate a new type of propulsion in space that uses no fuel – a solar sail. It works by reflecting sunlight & that reflected light pushes it through space. Congrats to Principal Investigator Les Johnson at @NASA_Marshall !
Quote from: Thomas ZurbuchenJUST IN: We’ve selected 2 new small satellite missions that'll expand our research & test new technologies in space. Congratulations to GLIDE & Solar Cruiser! These missions will share a ride to space in 2025 with the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). Pairing them with existing missions for launch allows us to provide more avenues for learning about our solar system & to develop innovative technical capabilities.GLIDE is the 1st mission exclusively dedicated to studying Earth’s outermost atmospheric layer - the exosphere. It'll provide measurements of this vast cloud that extends almost halfway to the Moon. Congrats to Principal Investigator Dr. Lara Waldrop at University of Illinois.Solar Cruiser will demonstrate a new type of propulsion in space that uses no fuel – a solar sail. It works by reflecting sunlight & that reflected light pushes it through space. Congrats to Principal Investigator Les Johnson at @NASA_Marshall !https://go.nasa.gov/3mG91gH
NASA's article also quietly mentions plans to potentially include a Spatial/Spectral Imaging of Heliospheric Lyman Alpha (SIHLA) spacecraft and NOAA's Solar Weather Follow-On spacecraft - so at least four or more substantially complex and valuable secondary payloads.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/imap/2020/12/11/nasa-adjusts-imap-schedule-to-accommodate-covid-19-precautions/QuoteNASA Adjusts IMAP Schedule to Accommodate COVID-19 PrecautionsTo accommodate schedule changes due to precautions regarding COVID-19, the preliminary design review for NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, has been moved from February to May 2021. Similarly, the launch readiness date is delayed from Oct. 1, 2024, to Feb. 1, 2025.
NASA Adjusts IMAP Schedule to Accommodate COVID-19 PrecautionsTo accommodate schedule changes due to precautions regarding COVID-19, the preliminary design review for NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP, has been moved from February to May 2021. Similarly, the launch readiness date is delayed from Oct. 1, 2024, to Feb. 1, 2025.
L3Harris will develop, deploy and operate a command and control system for NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 observatory, scheduled to launch in 2025 on NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe. L3Harris also will provide operations support for the space weather observatory for up to two years.
The spacecraft is scheduled to be completed in October 2022. However, it will not launch until at least February 2025, since it is flying as a rideshare payload on the Falcon 9 launch of the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). That mission’s launch was postponed last year from October 2024 to February 2025 because delays in its development caused by the pandemic, postponing several rideshare payloads like Lunar Trailblazer flying with it.That delay came up during a discussion of NASA planetary science projects at the March 24 meeting of the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science of the National Academies. Clive Neal, a committee member from the University of Notre Dame, asked if it would be possible to launch Lunar Trailblazer as a co-manifested payload on one of the series of Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) missions that will be launching to the moon starting late this year.“We’re looking across the whole directorate, looking for another ride for Lunar Trailblazer; a little sooner, if that’s possible,” responded Lori Glaze, NASA planetary science division director. She said NASA was not taking Lunar Trailblazer off the IMAP launch just yet, “but we are looking and we’re keeping our eyes open” for other opportunities.
NASA’s Lori Glaze says Lunar Trailblazer has been removed from the IMAP rideshare mission and instead will fly on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 CLPS mission in about a year. IMAP won’t launch until 2025, so this moves it up significantly.
NASA LAUNCH SERVICES II - SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES. MOD 233: This modification is to de-manifest the Lunar Trailblazer (LTB)and Solar Cruiser (SC) secondary missions from the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) Mission.
NASA LAUNCH SERVICES II - SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES. This modification is to change to preflown hardware for the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) Mission.
QuoteNASA LAUNCH SERVICES II - SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES. MOD 233: This modification is to de-manifest the Lunar Trailblazer (LTB)and Solar Cruiser (SC) secondary missions from the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) Mission.QuoteNASA LAUNCH SERVICES II - SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES. This modification is to change to preflown hardware for the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) Mission.
As a SIMPLEx mission, the spacecraft launches via “rideshare,” a secondary payload on a larger mission’s rocket. Lunar Trailblazer was originally manifested as a rideshare on the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), launching in 2025. As announced in June, however, NASA amended the mission agreement, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, which manages Lunar Trailblazer for the principal investigator at Caltech, signed a contract in early August for it to fly as a secondary payload on the second lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines, called IM-2. That IM-2 lunar delivery, carrying NASA’s PRIME-1 subsurface ice drill, is scheduled to launch in mid-2023.
