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By Savannah Bullard<\/em><\/p>\n Artemis I launched from NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 16, 2022, penning a new era of space exploration and inching the agency closer to sending the first woman and first person of color to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n Aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket were 10 small satellites, no bigger than shoeboxes, whose goal was to detach and capably perform operations near and beyond the Moon. One of those satellites was a product of the Cube Quest Challenge, a NASA-led prize competition that asked citizen innovators to design, build, and deliver flight-qualified satellites called CubeSats that could perform its mission independently of the Artemis I mission.<\/p>\n Cube Quest is the agency\u2019s first in-space public prize competition. Opened in 2015, the challenge began with four ground-based tournaments, which awarded almost $500,000 in prizes. Three finalists emerged from the ground competition with a ticket to hitch a ride aboard the SLS as a secondary payload \u2013 and win the rest of the competition\u2019s $5 million prize purse, NASA\u2019s largest-ever prize offering to date \u2013 in 2022.<\/p>\n Of the three finalists, Team Miles was the sole team to make the trip on Artemis I successfully. Shortly after a successful deployment in space, controllers detected downlink signals and processed them to confirm whether the CubeSat was operational. This remains the latest update for the Team Miles CubeSat.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still celebrating the many wins that were borne out of Cube Quest,\u201d said Centennial Challenges Program Manager Denise Morris. \u201cThe intent of the challenge was to reward citizen inventors who successfully advance the CubeSat technologies needed for operations on the Moon and beyond, and I believe we accomplished this.\u201d<\/p>\n Innovation rarely comes without error, but according to Challenge Manager Naveen Vetcha, who supports Centennial Challenges through Jacobs Space Exploration Group, even after everything goes as expected, there is no guarantee that scientists will reach their desired outcomes.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the magnitude of what we can and do accomplish every day at NASA, it comes with the territory that not every test, proposal, or idea will come out with 100 percent success,\u201d Vetcha said. \u201cWe have set ambitious goals, and challenging ourselves to change what\u2019s possible will inevitably end with examples of not meeting our stretch goals. But, with each failure comes more opportunities and lessons to carry forward. In the end, our competitors created technologies that will enable affordable deep space CubeSats, which, to me, is a big win.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Team Miles may have made it furthest in the Cube Quest Challenge, having launched its CubeSat as a secondary payload aboard Artemis I, the team continues to participate in the challenge long after launch.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom Team Miles, Miles Space LLC was created and is still in business,\u201d said Jan McKenna, Team Miles\u2019 project manager and safety lead. \u201cMiles Space is developing and selling the propulsion system designed for our craft to commercial aerospace companies, and we\u2019ve expanded to be able to create hardware for communications along with our CubeSat developments.\u201d<\/p>\n The next steps for Miles Space LLC include seeing through their active patent applications, establishing relationships with potential clients, and continuing to hunt for a connection with their flying CubeSat. Another finalist team, Cislunar Explorers, is currently focused on using their lessons learned to benefit the global small satellite community.<\/p>\n \u201cI utilized the contacts I made through Cube Quest and the other Artemis Secondary Payloads for my thesis research,\u201d said Aaron Zucherman, Cislunar Explorers\u2019 project manager. \u201cThis has enabled me to find partnerships and consulting work with other universities and companies where I have shared my experiences learning the best ways to build interplanetary CubeSats.\u201d<\/p>\n This challenge featured teams from diverse educational and commercial backgrounds. Several team members credited the challenge as a catalyst in their graduate thesis or Ph.D. research, but one young innovator says Cube Quest completely redirected his entire career trajectory.<\/p>\n Project Selene team lead, Braden Oh, competed with his peers at La Ca\u00f1ada High School in La Ca\u00f1ada, California. Oh\u2019s team eventually caught the attention of Kerri Cahoy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the designs were similar enough that Cahoy invited the two teams to merge. The exposure gained through this partnership was a powerful inspiration for Oh and his peers.<\/p>\n \u201cI originally intended to apply to college as a computer science major, but my experiences in Cube Quest inspired me to study engineering instead,\u201d Oh said. \u201cI saw similar stories unfold for a number of my teammates; one eventually graduated from MIT and another now works for NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n Cube Quest is managed out of NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in California\u2019s Silicon Valley. The competition is a part of NASA\u2019s Centennial Challenges, which is housed at the agency\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Centennial Challenges is a part of NASA\u2019s Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program in the Space Technology Mission Directorate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAdvancements in Commercial Space Research<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Inspiring a Generation of Space Scientists<\/strong><\/h3>\n