Nano spacecraft for micro moons

Many nanosatellites are built by educational institutions and operate in space near the Earth. Why not also send them to other planets in the solar system, for example to study small moons which so far has not paid off?

When the Cassini spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn its work plan included photographing and measuring Saturn, its rings and large moons. As a result of her measurements and photographs, additional moons were discovered. These are small moons that are tens of kilometers or less in size. Some exceed the 100 km limit and there are also those whose size is less than 10 km. They lack any numerical form. They are sort of flying mountains that surround Saturn. Astronomical observations have discovered additional moons around Saturn and their total number reaches dozens. It turned out that there are dozens of such moons around the other gaseous planets as well. Even Pluto has been found to have tiny moons. On these photographed moons they found craters and some of them are covered in dust. There is basically no difference between them and the asteroids. Due to their size it is more correct to define them as monthly.

When the Cassini spacecraft, during its orbits around Saturn, would pass by such a moon, even if the distance was thousands of kilometers, they would take advantage of this and point their cameras at it. The information broadcast to Israel was preliminary. Beyond that it is not possible to get more. Launching spacecraft that will focus on these moons is too expensive, yet it is appropriate to study these moons as well. The appropriate solution is the development of tiny spacecraft weighing up to 10 kg each. Each spaceship launched to one of these planets will have a platform with dozens of such spaceships on it. When a spacecraft passes by such a moon it releases a tiny spacecraft that moves towards it and crashes on its surface. During each journey of this spacecraft, it photographs its ground surface including spectroscopic measurements and transmits this information to the mother spacecraft and from there it is transmitted to Earth. When the mother spacecraft passes by this moon again and its other side is revealed to her, it launches another tiny spacecraft and thus it is possible to obtain a complete mapping of it.

If desired, this method of work can be perfected. to develop micro rovers and tiny satellites to orbit these moons. The experience developed in recent years in the development of tiny satellites to orbit the Earth can be used for these goals. Because of the dimensions of these spaceships it is possible to build them in a serial production format. In this way, the various space agencies will have off-the-shelf spacecraft ready for immediate use in preparation for the launch of each spacecraft to one of these planets.

These tiny spacecraft can also be used in the study of asteroids. A spacecraft will be put into orbit around the sun and will move within the asteroid belt. This spacecraft will be designed so that it will pass by certain asteroids and each one of them that will be captured by its cameras and arouse special interest, it will be possible to launch one or more tiny spacecraft to it.

Thanks to the serial production of these spacecraft, the production cost of each of them will decrease and the information accumulated on these moons will increase. In a somewhat futuristic view, as the production cost of such a spaceship goes down, the amount of information it will transmit will be greater. A new economic branch can develop, the economy of astronomical research. Sounds strange but you should think about it.