Lunar IceCube is a planned NASA nanosatellite mission to prospect, locate, and estimate size and composition of water ice deposits on the Moon for future exploitation by robots or humans. It will potentially fly as a secondary payload mission on the first flight of the Space Launch System, Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) scheduled to launch in 2018.

Overview

The lunar mission was designed by Morehead State University and its partners, the Busek Company, NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, and The Catholic University of America (CUA). It was selected in April 2015 by NASA's NextSTEP program ('Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships') and awarded a contract worth up to $7.9 million for further development.

The Lunar IceCube spacecraft will have a 6U CubeSat format, and a mass of about ≈14 kg (31 lb). It is one of eleven CubeSats planned to be carried on board the maiden flight of the SLS EM-1 mission as secondary payloads in cis-lunar space, scheduled for 2018. It will be deployed during lunar trajectory and will use an innovative electric RF ion engine to achieve lunar capture and the science orbit to allow the team to make systematic measurements of lunar water features from an orbit about 100 km (62 mi) above the lunar surface. The Principal Investigator is Ben Malphrus.