EagleCam Lunar Mission - Power Subsystem Analysis and Lessons Learned

Ahead of the United States’ Artemis crewed mission returning to the moon in 2024, Intuitive Machines, under the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract, is set to launch their Nova-C lunar lander in mid-February 2024, with a landing expected in late Februrary. EagleCam, a deployable payload onboard this mission, was delivered in November of 2021 with the initial intention of launching soon thereafter. Given that the long-term shelf life of the CubeSat was not taken into account initially as a requirement, charging and battery health telemetry are only available when the payload is activated. To ensure the battery health within the CubeSat, alternative methods of charging and analysis were developed. This paper will elucidate the challenges that emerged due to the postponed launch timeline, and the invaluable lessons learned, and will present data collected from the mission itself.