On Thursday, 29 December 2022, MXL’s latest cubesat, MARIO, was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) by Nanoracks and NASA. MARIO, also known as the Measurement of Actuator Response and Impedance on Orbit cubesat, is a 3U CubeSat collaboration between MXL, Extreme Diagnostics, Michigan’s Active Intelligent and Multifunctional Structure (AIMS) Lab, and NASA. The mission objective is to characterize the performance of piezoelectric actuators and health monitoring systems in low Earth orbit conditions. Test data will help develop future advanced space mechanisms.
MARIO was launched on 26 November 2022 to ISS onboard SpaceX CRS-26, also known as SpX-26, a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station (ISS). CRS-26 Falcon 9 launched from Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A. MARIO was integrated by Nanoracks into their cubesat deployer as part of NASA Cubesat Launch Initiative (CSLI). MARIO is the 150th mission from NASA CSLI!
First beacons were received by the Satnogs station, 2579 – K9YO. Initial assessment of telemetry shows power from all four panels. Battery voltage is a little lower than expected and we’ll be monitoring that in future passes.
Over the next several weeks, the MARIO operations team will assess satellite health and operational capabilities. Experiments on the payload will commence one this commissioning phase is complete. Stay tuned for more details.