Virgin Orbit wants to be the first private company to send cubesats to Mars.
The Virgin Galactic spinoff partnered with Polish satellite firm SatRevolution and a handful of Polish universities to design a dedicated commercial small satellite mission to the Red Planet.
The first in a series of up to three expeditions could launch as early as 2022.
“Smaller and more affordable spacecraft can successfully contribute to the exploration of the Red Planet,” according to Virgin Orbit, which cited NASA’s recent success with the twin Mars Cube One (MarCO) cubesats.
Backed by some of Poland’s top technical universities, the collaborative program has already shown that probes as small as 50 kg or less can be used for a range of study: collecting imagery, analyzing atmosphere, exploring terrain.
“We have already seen the incredible utility of small satellites … in Earth orbit, and we’re thrilled to start providing dedicated launches to deep space,” Stephen Eisele, Virgin Orbit’s vice president of business development, said in a statement. “We’re proud to enable a new wave of Polish creativity and innovation in space.”
SatRevolution, which in April sent Poland’s first commercial nanosatellite into Earth orbit, is responsible for design and manufacturing.
The mission is scheduled to fly on Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, attached to and deployed from a dedicated 747. The principal orbital rocket is currently undergoing final checks and preparation for a test flight, expected later this year.
SatRevolution’s Światowid satellite, Poland’s first commercial nanosatellite (via SatRevolution)
In October 2018, Virgin’s air-launch platform met “Cosmic Girl”—the plane that will carry the rocket under its wing to more than 30,000 feet before LauncherOne engages its thrusters and jets into orbit.
“This mission will galvanize the Polish space sector and mark its position [in] the international arena,” SatRevolution president Grzegorz Zwoliński explained.
“The project will accelerate the development of small satellites and of lightweight space science instrument technology,” he continued. “We want Poland to be ‘the go-to’ country for small interplanetary spacecraft.”
Poland’s Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology agrees.
“To me, it is only fitting that the nation of Copernicus should play an important part of … humanity’s understanding of our Solar System,” Jadwiga Emilewicz said. “Having already proven that Polish science and engineering can lead successful missions in Earth orbit, we are now looking further out into the heavens—just as Copernicus once did.”
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