Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M) was the first private lunar probe to successfully fly by the Moon. It was led by LuxSpace, a child company of German

OHB System OHB SE is a European multinational technology corporation. Headquartered in Bremen, Germany, the corporation consists of the two business divisions Space Systems and Aerospace + Industrial Products. A key product of the corporation is fully int ...

, and named in honor of OHB Systems founder, professor

Manfred Fuchs Manfred Fuchs (25 July 1938 in Latsch, Italy – 26 April 2014 in Kaltern an der Weinstraße) was an Italian-German entrepreneur and space pioneer who was the founder of the German space company OHB. Life Fuchs' family owned distilleries in ...

, who died in 2014. It was launched with the Chinese

Chang'e 5-T1 Chang'e 5-T1 () was an experimental robotic spacecraft that was launched to the Moon on 23 October 2014 by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to conduct atmospheric re-entry tests on the capsule design planned to be used in the Cha ...

test spacecraft on 23 October 2014. The lunar flyby took place on 28 October 2014, after which the spacecraft entered elliptical Earth orbit and continued transmission until 11 November 2014, exceeding its designed lifetime by four times. The spacecraft, along with the rocket stage to which it was attached, likely made impact with the surface of the Moon after its orbit decayed, on 4 March 2022. This made Luxembourg the eighth country to reach the surface of the Moon.

Spacecraft

The briefcase-sized probe, with a mass of 14 kg was built by the Luxemburg company LuxSpace. Its primary power source consisted of 28 non-rechargeable Saft LSH20 HTS lithium cells, which provided 4.5 W power for the payload electronics. It was permanently attached to the

Long March 3C The Long March 3C (), also known as the Changzheng 3C, CZ-3C and LM-3C, is a Chinese orbital launch vehicle. It is launched from Launch Complex 2 and 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC). A three-stage rocket with two strapon liquid ...

/G2 upper stage through the mission, and its design was adapted to function near the

electromagnetic interference Electromagnetic interference (EMI), also called radio-frequency interference (RFI) when in the radio frequency spectrum, is a disturbance generated by an external source that affects an electrical circuit by electromagnetic induction, electros ...

from the rocket's 1 kW

S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

transmitter. The secondary power source included 4 Saft MPS

lithium-ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...

recharged by a 2x8 grid of

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...

, to recharge its batteries. Unlike the primary power source, however, it was dependent on the spacecraft

attitude Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), an individual's predisposed state of mind regarding a value * Metaphysics of presence * Propositional attitude, a relational mental state connecting a person to a pro ...

(orientation) and rotation rate, determining the availability of sunlight to recharge the batteries. The onboard computer was an FM430.

Payload

;

Amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

The radio payload consisted of a quarter-wave

monopole antenna A monopole antenna is a class of radio antenna consisting of a straight rod-shaped conductor, often mounted perpendicularly over some type of conductive surface, called a ground plane. The driving signal from the transmitter is applied, or ...

supported by an I/Q modulator, and an

RF power amplifier A radio-frequency power amplifier (RF power amplifier) is a type of electronic amplifier that converts a low-power radio-frequency signal (electrical engineering), signal into a higher-power signal. Typically, RF power amplifiers drive the anten ...

providing 1.5 W power. The probe's antenna transmitted up to 2,500, 13-character digital messages at 145.980 MHz using digital mode JT65B, with additional tone transmissions. LuxSpace created a contest with prizes for

amateur radio operator An amateur radio operator is someone who uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way personal communications with other amateur operators on radio frequencies assigned to the amateur radio service. Amateur radio operators hav ...

s to receive these transmissions and send results back to the company. The radio was activated 77.8 minutes after the launch, and the first radio signal was received in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

at 19:18 UTC. The team expected 10 participants to join the contest, but more than 60 people took part. Scoring was based on the number of messages received. ;Dosimeter The 4M probe featured a small

dosimeter A radiation dosimeter is a device that measures dose uptake of external ionizing radiation. It is worn by the person being monitored when used as a personal dosimeter, and is a record of the radiation dose received. Modern electronic personal dos ...

that measured

ionizing radiation Ionizing radiation (or ionising radiation), including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have sufficient energy to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some particles can travel ...

in space. The instrument was provided by the Spanish company iC-Málaga. The instrument measured the total ionizing dose every 5 minutes, and it showed a significant increase in radiation doses while crossing Van Allen radiation belts. 215 hours into the mission, the radiation sensor stopped working for unknown reasons.

Mission

The probe was permanently attached to the third stage of

/G2 on 23 October 2014 at 18:00 UTC along with

, making its closest flyby a day after Chang'e 5-T1. The lunar flyby took place during the night of 28 October 2014. After that, the probe entered a highly elliptical

geocentric orbit A geocentric orbit or Earth orbit involves any object orbiting Earth, such as the Moon or artificial satellites. In 1997, NASA estimated there were approximately 2,465 artificial satellite payloads orbiting Earth and 6,216 pieces of space debris ...

with a period of 14 days and it remains in space. The last transmission from the spacecraft was received on 11 November 2014, 01:35 UTC. It is expected that the booster, along with 4M, should have impacted the Moon on March 4, 2022, near the Hertzsprung crater. A campaign to reacquire radio contact with the probe, knowing it could theoretically be reactivated depending on the orientation of the solar panels, was performed both by radioastronomers and amateurs, but without success.

Honorifics

The 4M probe was the first private lunar probe to successfully perform a lunar flyby. A similar flyby on 13 May 1998 by the

PAS-22 AsiaSat 3, previously known as HGS-1 and then PAS-22, was a geosynchronous communications satellite, which was salvaged from an unusable geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) by means of the Moon's gravity. Launch of AsiaSat 3 AsiaSat 3 was la ...

satellite, at the time called HGS-1, a

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitude ...

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...

made a lunar flyby in a recovery attempt after a partially failed launch that left it on an unusable highly elliptical orbit. Using

gravity assist In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the p ...

manoeuvres, the satellite was successfully recovered on 17 June. Unlike the 4M mission, the HGS-1 was not designed as a lunar mission, and made a flyby only in a recovery attempt, however according to Hughes Global Services, the satellite operator at the time, it claimed the title of the first commercial mission to the Moon. The first commercial payload to the surface of the Moon was by

Celestis Celestis, Inc. is a company that launches cremated human remains into space, a procedure known as a space burial. It is a subsidiary of the private space company Space Services Inc. The company purchases launches as a secondary payload on va ...

,About the Luna 01 Flight.

. Accessed 14 July 2018. that paid for commercial transportation of a human remains memorial on board the ''

Lunar Prospector ''Lunar Prospector'' was the third mission selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, ...

'', which impacted the Moon's surface on 31 July 1999.

References

External links