Montreal Space Symposium 2019

MPB Communications Inc. has been involved in Space R&D projects for over 40 years, building optical payloads for satellites, rovers and rockets. Currently, MPBC is developing key technologies to aid lunar exploration, notably including two projects: Lunar Cubesat Mission (VMMO “Ice Mapper”) and Dusty Thermal Vacuum Chamber (DTVAC). The VMMO Volatiles and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter is a low-cost 12U lunar Cubesat being developed with CSA and ESA for mapping water-ice and other volatiles within permanently shadowed craters near lunar south pole using MPBC’s fiber laser technologies at 532 nm and 1560 nm. DTVAC was designed and built as a planetary environment simulator for Canadian Space Agency that simultaneously combines a controlled dust simulant shower in vacuum with simulated solar illumination and thermal control of the test device from below -196°C to above +120°C. The feasibility of liquid-helium cooling of a small platen with lunar regolith to about 40 K was also demonstrated, simulating temperatures relevant to permanently shadowed regions on the moon. Both of these projects present significant design challenges that are discussed in this presentation.