Quantum Space Gears Up for First Lunar Superhighway Mission
(US and Canada) Rockville-based space transport and research organization Quantum Space just announced its first operational mission. Known as QS-1, the mission to cislunar space will launch in October 2024 and will be executed in partnership with GEOST and Blue Canyon Technologies.
As per the organization, it will be the first step in establishing a superhighway between the Earth and the Moon and will deploy commercial capabilities that enable spacecraft to operate in and travel through cislunar space and beyond more efficiently.
Quantum Space also revealed that QS-1 will fly in cislunar space primarily around the two Earth-Moon-Lagrange Points 1 and 2 (EM-L1 and EM-L2) to establish commercial operations for the company.
The key mission objectives include:
Producing space situational and space domain awareness data products
Hosting customer payloads
Advanced cislunar navigation methods
Autonomous station keeping
The mission will leverage commercial ground station networks for space-to-ground communication. Mission and payload control will be conducted from a Quantum control center.
“In less than a year we have significantly grown our team to include a diverse group of aerospace industry leaders, scientists, and engineers to achieve our bold mission of transforming space commerce beyond Earth orbit,” says Steve Jurczyk, President and CEO, Quantum Space. Adding, “I’m proud of what we have accomplished to get to this point and look forward to continuing our momentum towards our first operational flight in the fall of 2024.”
Quantum also announced multiple agreements with providers for the QS-1 mission. GEOST will develop the purpose-built QS-1 space domain awareness sensor and Blue Canyon Technologies will manufacture the spacecraft bus that will carry the Quantum and customer payloads.
As per Jeff Schrader, President, Blue Canyon Technologies, the company’s Saturn product, with key enhancements for deep space, will provide Quantum Space with an architecture that was designed specifically for such missions.
Quantum recently appointed Ron Thompson as its Chief Data Officer. The former NASA CDO is also a CDO Magazine Global Editorial Board Member.
After completion of a combined systems design review and mission concept review for QS-1 in July, 2022, Quantum will now shift focus toward finalizing vehicle design requirements for the first mission. Once vehicle design has been completed, Quantum will announce additional mission partners, including launch services, and commercial ground station providers.