The small satellite tv for pc was to map lunar water, however operators misplaced contact with the spacecraft the day after launch and have been unable to recuperate the mission.
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer ended its mission to the Moon on July 31. Regardless of intensive efforts, mission operators have been unable to ascertain two-way communications after shedding contact with the spacecraft the day following its Feb. 26 launch.
The mission aimed to provide high-resolution maps of water on the Moon’s floor and decide what kind the water is in, how a lot is there, and the way it modifications over time. The maps would have supported future robotic and human exploration of the Moon in addition to industrial pursuits whereas additionally contributing to the understanding of water cycles on airless our bodies all through the photo voltaic system.
Lunar Trailblazer shared a experience on the second Intuitive Machines robotic lunar lander mission, IM-2, which lifted off at 7:16 p.m. EST on Feb. 26 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the company’s Kennedy House Middle in Florida. The small satellite tv for pc separated as deliberate from the rocket about 48 minutes after launch to start its flight to the Moon. Mission operators at Caltech’s IPAC in Pasadena established communications with the small spacecraft at 8:13 p.m. EST. Contact was misplaced the next day.
With out two-way communications, the crew was unable to totally diagnose the spacecraft or carry out the thruster operations wanted to maintain Lunar Trailblazer on its flight path.
“At NASA, we undertake high-risk, high-reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to search out revolutionary methods of doing new science,” mentioned Nicky Fox, affiliate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Whereas it was not the end result we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer assist us to be taught and scale back the danger for future, low-cost small satellites to do revolutionary science as we put together for a sustained human presence on the Moon. Thanks to the Lunar Trailblazer crew for his or her dedication in engaged on and studying from this mission via to the tip.”
The restricted knowledge the mission crew had obtained from Lunar Trailblazer indicated that the spacecraft’s photo voltaic arrays weren’t correctly oriented towards the Solar, which induced its batteries to turn into depleted.
For a number of months, collaborating organizations around the globe — a lot of which volunteered their help — listened for the spacecraft’s radio sign and tracked its place. Floor radar and optical observations indicated that Lunar Trailblazer was in a sluggish spin because it headed farther into deep area.
“As Lunar Trailblazer drifted far past the Moon, our fashions confirmed that the photo voltaic panels may obtain extra daylight, maybe charging the spacecraft’s batteries to a degree it may activate its radio,” mentioned Andrew Klesh, Lunar Trailblazer’s challenge programs engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The worldwide group’s help helped us higher perceive the spacecraft’s spin, pointing, and trajectory. In area exploration, collaboration is important — this gave us one of the best probability to attempt to regain contact.”
Nonetheless, as time handed, Lunar Trailblazer grew to become too distant to recuperate as its telecommunications indicators would have been too weak for the mission to obtain telemetry and to command.
The small satellite tv for pc’s Excessive-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) imaging spectrometer was constructed by JPL to detect and map the places of water and minerals. The mission’s Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) instrument was constructed by the College of Oxford in the UK and funded by the UK House Company to collect temperature knowledge and decide the composition of silicate rocks and soils to enhance understanding of why water content material varies over time.
“We’re immensely dissatisfied that our spacecraft didn’t get to the Moon, however the two science devices we developed, just like the groups we introduced collectively, are world class,” mentioned Bethany Ehlmann, the mission’s principal investigator at Caltech. “This collective data and the expertise developed will cross-pollinate to different tasks because the planetary science group continues work to raised perceive the Moon’s water.”
A few of that expertise will dwell on within the JPL-built Extremely Compact Imaging Spectrometer for the Moon (UCIS-Moon) instrument that NASA not too long ago selected for a future orbital flight alternative. The instrument, which has has an equivalent spectrometer design as HVM3, will present the Moon’s highest spatial decision knowledge of floor lunar water and minerals.
Lunar Trailblazer was chosen by NASA’s SIMPLEx (Small Modern Missions for Planetary Exploration) competitors, which offers alternatives for low-cost science spacecraft to ride-share with chosen main missions. To take care of the decrease general price, SIMPLEx missions have the next danger posture and less-stringent necessities for oversight and administration. This greater danger acceptance bolsters NASA’s portfolio of focused science missions designed to check pioneering mission approaches.
Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA, led Lunar Trailblazer’s science investigation, and Caltech’s IPAC led mission operations, which included planning, scheduling, and sequencing of all spacecraft actions. Together with managing Lunar Trailblazer, NASA JPL offered system engineering, mission assurance, the HVM3 instrument, and mission design and navigation. Lockheed Martin House offered the spacecraft, built-in the flight system, and supported operations beneath contract with Caltech. The College of Oxford developed and offered the LTM instrument, funded by the UK House Company. Lunar Trailblazer, a challenge of NASA’s Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program, was managed by NASA’s Planetary Missions Program Workplace at Marshall House Flight Middle in Huntsville, Alabama, for the company’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
Isabel Swafford
Caltech IPAC
626-216-4257
iswafford@ipac.caltech.edu
2025-099