ALEPH-1 Mission and Payload Description Summary

ALEPH-1 Mission and Payload Description Summary

Primary mission demonstration objective

To establish whether ‘micro-habitat’ conditions deemed necessary for the survival of selected "biological components" can be maintained, measured and the necessary data acquired over the mission duration - including 72 hours on the lunar surface.

Funding

Lunaria One Pty Ltd, Australian Space Agency Moon-to-Mars Initiative Demonstrator Award (2022).

Delivery spacecraft

Intuitive Machines, Nova-C lunar lander (IM-3 mission, scheduled for H2 2026).

Interface constraints

  • Mounted to side panel of the Nova-C Spacecraft
  • Payload Mass: ~ 500 grams
  • Heater Power: 10 Watts
  • Avionics Power: 5 Watts
  • Ethernet Interface
  • Data limit 100 Mb

Payload Development and Integration

RMIT M2MIST Centre  

Payload configuration

ALEPH-1 (Fig. 1) comprises of a “Control Module” (CM) linked by an umbilical harness to the hermetically sealed “Biological Module” (BM) housing biological components and sensors to measure internal air temperature and pressure (Fig. 2). It is intended that the mission data generated will be transmitted by from the CM to the Nova-C and then downloaded via the Deep Space Network. Data upload capability is also planned. 

Figure 1 ALEPH-1 Architecture

A block diagram titled “Figure 1” from RMIT University showing the system architecture of the ALEPH-1 mission, divided into Ground Segment and Space Segment. The diagram illustrates the flow of data, heater power, and avionics power between ground stations in Australia and the ALEPH-1 payloads (Command Module and Backup Module) on the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar lander.

Figure 2 ALEPH-1 BM

Biological components (Fig. 3) intended to be carried on BM scaffold: two samples of crustose Map lichen (Rhizocarpon geographicum), selected for resilience to expected pre-flight storage conditions as well as the in-flight and lunar environments.

Figure 3 ALEPH-1 Bio-Scaffold (test version)

Close-up photograph of a test item of the ALEPH-1 Biological Module Scaffold comprising two circular cells, each holding a sample "tablets" of the yellow-green lichen Rhizocarpon geographicum growing on a rock substrate. The left chamber shows a more uniformly bright yellow-green thallus with some dark lines, while the right chamber displays a patchier appearance with larger areas of brown-black substrate visible. The alloy housing of the module is visible around the cells, with mounting holes and a small 3 mm cavity intended to hold seeds. The photo is taken against a plain light-blue background

For more information: on the ALEPH-1, science, mission and payload, please see M2MIST publications, and/or contact graham.dorrington@rmit.edu.au

For more educational outreach aspects of the ALEPH project, please visit https://lunaria.one/aleph/

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