ESA，11 May 2017
The Moon
月球图景
If you could fly a CubeSat to the Moon, what could such a tiny satellite do there? ESA posed this question – and now four proposals will be studied in more detail for possible flight over the coming decade.
“如果一颗立方星被发往月球，它能做什么？”欧洲航天局曾发布了这个问题，现在，四个提案在未来十年的发射可能性将被详细研究。
These miniature missions variously involve probing lunar radiation, surveying the radio sky over the far side of the Moon, mapping minerals and frozen gases within shadowed craters, and detecting flashes from meteoroids striking the surface.
这些立方星小型任务涉及月球辐射探测、月球背面天体电波考察、背阴陨石坑矿藏和冰冻气体勘查，以及流星撞击月球表面时产生的闪光监测。
CubeSats orbiting Earth
地球轨道上的立方星
“Built around standard 10 cm units, CubeSats are already proving their worth near to Earth,” explains ESA’s Roger Walker. “We are now considering their uses further afield as part of future lunar exploration.”
“立方星的标准尺寸为边长10厘米的立方体，它们已经证明了自己在近地轨道的价值。”欧洲航天局的Roger Walker解释道，“现在，我们正在考虑让立方星去更远的地方，作为未来月球探索的一部分。”
Four teams are now being funded until this autumn by ESA to develop their ideas.
欧洲航天局已经着手准备在今年秋天前组建四个小组来开发这些项目。
Probing radiation environment
探索月球辐射
MoonCARE, a trio of six-unit CubeSats, would measure the radiation environment and its effects on microorganisms with an eye to building closed-loop life support systems for future human crews.
MoonCARE，6个立方星为一组的三组组合，将测量月球的辐射环境以及辐射对微生物的影响，主要关注生命保障系统闭合循环内的微生物，为未来人类宇航员做准备。
Radio explorers
考察天体电波
The CubeSat Low-frequency Explorer of three 12-unit satellites would create the first radio telescope over the radio-quiet far side to image the sky below 30 MHz – not measurable from Earth – as a stepping stone to a larger array.
低频探测者，以12个立方星为一组的三组组合，成为远端电波宁静区第一个射电望远镜。它将绘制30赫兹以下的天体电波，这从地球上是无法做到的，这是通往人类探索更大量天体的阶梯。
Ice mapper
冰层勘查
The 12-unit Volatile and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter would chart the Moon’s surface minerals and frozen gases such as water ice to 10 m resolution using a ‘laser radar’ to peer into shadowed regions at the poles.
挥发性冰矿与矿物学定位卫星由12颗立方星组成，它将利用激光雷达检查月球极点的阴影，定位及绘制月球表面的矿藏与冰冻气体，比如分辨率在10米左右的冰冻水。
Impact detector
撞击监测
The Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer would be a single 12-unit CubeSat carrying a sophisticated camera to capture the flashes of meteoroids impacting the far side to complement existing near-side monitoring and build a complete picture of the hazards facing future moonwalkers.
流星撞击监测者，由12颗独立的装备精密摄像仪器的立方星组成，它们将捕捉月球远端流星撞击的闪光，以补足现有的近处记录，然后建立未来月面漫游者将面对的流星隐患的全貌。
Call for the Moon
月球的召唤
Roger adds, “As a way of bringing together lunar exploration researchers with the CubeSat community, we put out an open call to European companies, universities and research centres.
Roger说，“为了将探月研究人员与立方星团队相结合，我们向欧洲的公司、大学和研究中心发起了公开遴选。
“We received a very large response from joint academic–industrial teams across Europe, highlighting the strong interest in this topic, and many high-quality proposals were received – so the competition was tough.”
“我们从欧洲的学术界与工业界团体收到了大量回复，大家对月球探索和立方星的结合很感兴趣，同时我们也收获了很多高质量的预选方案——竞争可谓激烈。”
Concurrent Design Facility
协同设计中心
The challenge assumes the delivery of the CubeSats into lunar orbit and the relay of their data back to Earth are taken care of by a larger ‘mothership’, allowing the teams to focus resources on discovery.
这项计划的挑战在于将立方星送入月球轨道，以及将立方星的数据通过一个“航母”传送回地球，这样才能让研究小组集中资源进行研究。
The teams will compete for the final prize at a workshop in December, when there is an opportunity to design their mission in detail in collaboration with ESA experts at the cutting-edgeConcurrent Design Facility.
四个小组将在今年12月角逐入选最终方案，入选者将有机会与欧洲航天局协同设计中心（CDF）的专家合作设计任务细节。
“Regardless of the winner, the challenge sets Europe up to be able to take rapid advantage of lunar flight opportunities as they arise,” adds Roger. “These are expected with future NASA Orion circumlunar flights and those of commercial operators.
“无论最终的获胜队伍是谁，这个挑战将让欧洲迅速积累探月经验，”Roger说，“这是对未来像NASA一样探索猎户座的期望，而不是那些被商业驱使的任务。”
“This current challenge – building on our previous challenge to propose deep-space CubeSats for the Asteroid Impact Mission – also paves the way to direct exploration by standalone deep-space CubeSats.”
“现阶段的挑战，即基于之前的小行星撞击任务而提出的深空立方星挑战，也正为深空单体立方星的直接探测做准备。”
Video:
Roger Walker: Space cubed – CubeSats for technology testing
Roger Walker：立方宇宙——立方星的科研测试
http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/content/view/embedjw/484539
Roger Walker, ESA’s Technology CubeSat manager, explains how the Agency is making use of these cheap standardised nanosatellites in a box, literally a box: based on rugged, stackable electronics boards housed in one or more standardised 10 cm sized units. CubeSats were first developed in the US as an educational tool: widely adapted by university engineering facilities to let students to build and fly their own space missions.
ESA’s use of them began with its Education Office, making use of the opportunity for European universities to fly CubeSats on the maiden voyage of ESA’s new Vega launcher. Today they are being employed more broadly: because they are so cheap so build and fly they offer an ideal platform for demonstrating promising technologies in orbit. European industry and research labs are pushing ahead rapidly with developing new products and ESA sees CubeSats as a way to get those products into orbit as quickly as possible, to help maintain Europe’s competitive edge.
视频摘要：
Roger Walker是欧洲宇航局立方星科研主管，视频解释了欧洲宇航局如何使用这些廉价标准制式的超小型卫星盒子（它们是真正意义上的盒子：边长10厘米的立方组件，内置不平整、易堆叠的电路板的）。立方星最初在美国用于教学：广泛使用于大学工程机构，使学生们得以制造和发射自己的太空任务。
欧洲宇航局一开始将立方星用于教育类办公室，欧洲大学在欧洲宇航局的新Vega发射器中第一次发射了立方星。如今，立方星被用于更广泛的领域：因为立方星的造价便宜，同时也被证明立方星在轨道探测中是一个有前途的科技。欧洲的机构和研究实验室对立方星的新产品发展推进迅速，同时，欧洲宇航局认为立方星能够让新产品及时进入轨道，增强欧洲的竞争优势。
Book Binding Fox 