{"id":70295,"date":"2016-08-10T18:55:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-10T10:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/lockheed-martin-nasa-finalize-contract-for-skyfire-lunar-imaging-cubesat\/"},"modified":"2016-08-10T18:55:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T10:55:36","slug":"lockheed-martin-nasa-finalize-contract-for-skyfire-lunar-imaging-cubesat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/lockheed-martin-nasa-finalize-contract-for-skyfire-lunar-imaging-cubesat\/","title":{"rendered":"Lockheed Martin, NASA Finalize Contract for SkyFire Lunar Imaging CubeSat"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>[Via Satellite 08-10-2016] <strong>Lockheed Martin<\/strong> has signed a contract with <strong>NASA<\/strong> to deploy SkyFire, a 6U CubeSat planned to launch to the moon in 2018 with Orion\u2019s Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). SkyFire is a public-private partnership between Lockheed Martin and NASA. Lockheed Martin will build the satellite with internal investments, and the newly signed contract will grant Lockheed Martin access to send the satellite to the moon aboard the EM-1 launch. NASA will in turn receive data from the mission. The Lockheed Martin development team primarily consists of early-career engineers in partnership with the <strong>University of Colorado Boulder<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSkyFire\u2019s lunar flyby will pioneer brand new infrared technology, enabling scientists to fill strategic gaps in lunar knowledge that have implications for future human space exploration,\u201d said John Ringelberg, Lockheed Martin\u2019s SkyFire project manager.<\/p>\n<p>This infrared camera will take high quality images with a lighter, simpler unit. This reduction in mass means lower payload cost and easier maneuverability in space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CubeSat will look for specific lunar characteristics like solar illumination areas,\u201d said James Russell, Lockheed Martin SkyFire principal investigator. \u201cWe\u2019ll be able to see new things with sensors that are less costly to make and send to space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The moon is just the proving ground for this new technology. If successful, the infrared system on SkyFire could eventually be used for cost-effective studies of a planet\u2019s resources before humans arrive. This includes tasks like analyzing soil conditions, determining ideal landing sites and discovering a planet\u2019s most livable areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a small CubeSat, SkyFire has a chance to make a big impact on future planetary space missions,\u201d Russell explained. \u201cWith less mass and better instruments, we can get closer, explore deeper and learn more about the far reaches of our solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Via Satellite 08-10-2016] Lockheed Martin has signed a contract with NASA to deploy SkyFire, a 6U CubeSat planned to launch to the moon in 2018 with Orion\u2019s Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). SkyFire is a public-private partnership between Lockheed Martin and NASA. Lockheed Martin will build the satellite with internal investments, and the newly signed contract will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}