Lunar Ice Cube: first generation deep space CubeSat with compact broadband IR spectrometer development story

Lunar Ice Cube (LIC) is one of 13 6U cubesats that will be deployed by EM1 in cislunar space. LIC along with Lunar Flashlight and LunaH-Map, all focused on the search for volatiles but with very different payloads, will be the first deep space cubesats designed to address goals for both demonstrating new technologies and collecting scientific data. Effectively, as their developments are occurring in parallel, they are acting as prototypes for future deep space cubesats missions. One useful outcome of this 'experiment' is to evolve a working paradigm for the development and operation of compact, cost-capped, standardized (supporting subsystems) spacecraft to serve the needs of diverse user communities. The lunar ice cube mission was developed as the test case in a GSFC R and D study to determine whether the cubesat paradigm could be applied to deep space, science requirements driven missions, and BIRCHES was its payload. Here, we present the design and describe the ongoing development, and testing, in the context of the challenges of using the cubesat paradigm to fly a broadband IR spectrometer in a 6U platform, including a very harsh environment, minimal funding and extensive need for leveraging existing assets and relationships on development, and minimum command and telemetry bandwidth translating into simplified or canned operation and the collection of only essential data.