Interplanetary & Deep-Space CubeSats (MarCO, LICIACube, CAPSTONE, Milani & Juventas)

Telecommunications at 1 AU, cold-gas momentum desaturation outside Earth’s magnetosphere, reflectarray high-gain antennas, and autonomous optical navigation on 6U and 12U deep-space CubeSats.

Document: SQ-MSN-011
Updated: 22 Oct 2026
Reading time: 1 min

In this tab

Engineering Challenges Beyond Low Earth Orbit

Taking a 6U or 12U CubeSat beyond cis-lunar space removes two foundational crutches of nanosatellites: Earth’s geomagnetic field (rendering useless for reaction-wheel desaturation) and short 500–1,500 km slant ranges[1][2]. At 1 AU ( $1.5 \times 1 0^{8} km$ ), free-space path loss increases by $> 100 dB$ relative to LEO, requiring high-gain X-band reflectarrays and NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) 34 m / 70 m antennas[3][4].

Landmark Interplanetary CubeSat Missions

Mission	Size	Agency / Builder	Target & Year	Key Engineering Innovation
MarCO-A / -B (WALL-E / EVE)	6U	NASA JPL	Mars Flyby (2018)	Folded X-band reflectarray (29 dBi) + Vacco R-236fa cold-gas RCS
LICIACube	6U	ASI / Argotec	Didymos–Dimorphos (2022)	Autonomous optical plume tracking at 55 km during DART impact
CAPSTONE	12U	NASA / Advanced Space / Terran Orbital	Lunar NRHO (2022)	Hydrazine propulsion + peer-to-peer crosslink navigation with LRO
Artemis I CubeSats (BioSentinel, ArgoMoon, Lunar IceCube)	6U	NASA / ASI / Morehead State	Heliocentric / Lunar (2022)	Deep-space radiation biosensor & optical secondary stage imaging
Hera Milani & Juventas	6U XL	ESA / Tyvak / GomSpace	Didymos–Dimorphos (2024–2026)	Hyperspectral dust mapping & 60 MHz low-frequency asteroid radar

From Ride-Along Relays to Asteroid Landers

Following MarCO’s real-time relay of InSight’s Mars landing in November 2018 and LICIACube’s close flyby of Dimorphos in September 2022, ESA’s Juventas 6U CubeSat is designed to touch down on the low-gravity surface of Dimorphos after completing its radar tomography survey.

References

[1]NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (2019). The MarCO mission comes to an end.jpl.nasa.gov
[2]The CubeSat Program, Cal Poly SLO. (2022). CubeSat Design Specification, Rev. 14.1 (CP-CDS-R14.1). California Polytechnic State University.nasa.gov
[3]NASA Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute. (2026). State-of-the-Art of Small Spacecraft Technology (2026 edition). NASA Ames Research Center.nasa.gov(accessed 20 October 2026)
[4]Wertz, J. R., Everett, D. F., & Puschell, J. J. (Eds.). (2011). Space Mission Engineering: The New SMAD. Microcosm Press.

Cite this SatWiki entry

@misc{nadirlab2026deep,
  author       = {{nadir lab.}},
  title        = {{Interplanetary \& Deep-Space CubeSats (MarCO, LICIACube, CAPSTONE, Milani \& Juventas)}},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = oct,
  howpublished = {nadir lab. SatWiki SQ-MSN-011 (Rev. 1)},
  url          = {https://nadirlab.space/wiki/deep-space-cubesats/}
}

nadir lab. (2026). Interplanetary & Deep-Space CubeSats (MarCO, LICIACube, CAPSTONE, Milani & Juventas). nadir lab. SatWiki (SQ-MSN-011, Rev. 1). https://nadirlab.space/wiki/deep-space-cubesats/

TY  - ENCYC
AU  - nadir lab.
TI  - Interplanetary & Deep-Space CubeSats (MarCO, LICIACube, CAPSTONE, Milani & Juventas)
T2  - nadir lab. SatWiki
PY  - 2026
ET  - Rev. 1
C1  - SQ-MSN-011
UR  - https://nadirlab.space/wiki/deep-space-cubesats/
ER  -