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MarCO CubeSat Model

Jan. 20, 2016
Engineers for NASA's MarCO (Mars Cube One) technology demonstration inspect one of the two MarCO CubeSats. Joel Steinkraus, MarCO lead mechanical engineer, left, and Andy Klesh, MarCO chief engineer, are on the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Joel Steinkraus, lead mechanical engineer for the MarCO (Mars Cube One) CubeSat spacecraft, adjusts a model of one of the two spacecraft.

The mock-up in the photo is in a configuration to show the deployed position of components that correspond to MarCO's two solar panels and two antennas. During launch, those components will be stowed for a total vehicle size of about 14.4 inches (36.6 centimeters) by 9.5 inches (24.3 centimeters) by 4.6 inches (11.8 centimeters).

The briefcase-size MarCO twins were designed to ride along with NASA's next Mars lander, InSight. Its planned March 2016 launch was suspended.

InSight -- an acronym for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport -- will study the interior of Mars to improve understanding of the processes that formed and shaped rocky planets, including Earth.

The MarCO and InSight projects are managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

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