Shining a Light on Student-Led Mission Operations: Lessons Learned from the Lunar Flashlight Project

Lunar Flashlight (LF), a 6U technology demonstration CubeSat launched in December 2022, was the first NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) mission to be operated entirely by students. The focus of this paper is the lessons learned from the mission operations team, made up of graduate and undergraduate students at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), with regards to the structure, elements, and relationships of an interplanetary small satellite mission operations system (MOS). The complex work environment of mission operations is functionally decomposed using a work domain analysis to group lessons learned by relevant work functions. In this way, all aspects of a holistic MOS are addressed, including their implementation on the LF project and relevant lessons learned. The experience of the GT operations team can inform expectations, preparation, and execution for future student-led project involvement at JPL and elsewhere.