NASA Voyage Lunar Trailblazer: Mapping the Moon's Water Resources
Explained Facts Know about NASA Voyage Lunar Trailblazer: Mapping the Moon's Water Resources
Recently, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer arrived in Florida to prepare for its launch later this month.
The small satellite, shipped from Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, has been integrated with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
It will be riding along on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 launch — part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
The launch is slated for no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 26, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center.
Approximately 48 minutes after launch, Lunar Trailblazer will separate from the rocket and start its independent journey to the Moon.
This small satellite aims to discover where the Moon's water is, the form it takes, and how it changes over time, creating the best-yet maps of water on the lunar surface.
During its two-year prime mission, observations gathered will enhance the understanding of water cycles on airless bodies throughout the solar system.
Additionally, these findings will support future human and robotic missions to the Moon by pinpointing the locations of water.
The spacecraft's key to achieving these goals lies in its two state-of-the-art science instruments: the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) infrared spectrometer and the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) infrared multispectral imager.
The HVM3 instrument was provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, while the LTM was built by the University of Oxford and funded by the UK Space Agency.
“The small team is international in scope, which is more typical of larger projects,” said Andy Klesh, Lunar Trailblazer’s project systems engineer at JPL.
“And unlike the norm for small missions that may only have a very focused, singular purpose, Lunar Trailblazer has two high-fidelity instruments onboard.
We are really punching above our weight.”
Before it can use its instruments to collect science data, Lunar Trailblazer will perform a series of intricate maneuvers over several months, including Moon flybys, thruster bursts, and looping orbits.
These highly choreographed actions will eventually position the spacecraft to map the lunar surface in great detail.
Weighing only 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and measuring 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide when its solar panels are fully deployed, Lunar Trailblazer is about the size of a dishwasher and features a relatively small engine.
To make its four-to-seven-month trip to the Moon (depending on the launch date) as efficient as possible, the mission’s design and navigation team has planned a trajectory using the gravity of the Sun, Earth, and Moon to guide the spacecraft. This technique, called low-energy transfer, ensures an efficient journey to the Moon.
“The initial boost provided by the rocket will send the spacecraft past the Moon and into deep space. Its trajectory will then be naturally reshaped by gravity after several lunar flybys and loops around Earth. This will allow it to be captured into lunar orbit with minimal propulsion needs,” said Gregory Lantoine, Lunar Trailblazer’s mission design and navigation lead at JPL. “It’s the most fuel-efficient way to get to where we need to go.”
As it flies past the Moon several times, the spacecraft will use small thruster bursts, known as trajectory correction maneuvers, to slowly change its orbit from highly elliptical to circular. This process will bring the satellite down to an altitude of about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the Moon’s surface.
Once in its science orbit, Lunar Trailblazer will glide over the Moon’s surface, making 12 orbits a day and observing the surface at various times of day throughout the mission. The satellite will be perfectly placed to peer into the permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s South Pole, which harbor cold traps that never see direct sunlight. If Lunar Trailblazer finds significant quantities of ice at the base of these craters, those locations could be identified as potential resources for future lunar explorers.
The data collected during the mission will be transmitted to NASA’s Deep Space Network and delivered to Lunar Trailblazer’s new operations center at Caltech’s IPAC in Pasadena, California. Students from Caltech and nearby Pasadena City College will work alongside the mission’s experienced team, participating in all aspects of the mission, from operations and communications to developing software.
Lunar Trailblazer was a selection of NASA’s SIMPLEx (Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration), which provides opportunities for low-cost science spacecraft to ride-share with selected primary missions. To maintain the lower overall cost, SIMPLEx missions have a higher risk posture and lighter requirements for oversight and management. This higher risk acceptance allows NASA to test pioneering technologies, and the definition of success for these missions includes the lessons learned from more experimental endeavors.
“We are a small mission with groundbreaking science goals, so we will succeed by embracing the flexibility that’s built into our organization,” said Lee Bennett, Lunar Trailblazer operations lead with IPAC. “Our international team consists of seasoned engineers, science team members from several institutions, and local students who are being given the opportunity to work on a NASA mission for the first time.”
Lunar Trailblazer is led by Principal Investigator Bethany Ehlmann of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Caltech is also responsible for the mission’s science investigation and operations, including planning, scheduling, and sequencing of all science, instrument, and spacecraft activities during the nominal mission. The science data processing will be carried out in the Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization at Caltech.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California manages Lunar Trailblazer and provides system engineering, mission assurance, the HVM3 instrument, as well as mission design and navigation. Lockheed Martin Space supplies the spacecraft, integrates the flight system, and supports operations under contract with Caltech. The University of Oxford developed and provided the LTM instrument.
Part of NASA’s Lunar Discovery Exploration Program, the mission is managed by NASA’s Planetary Mission Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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Lunar Trailblazer’s voyage to the Moon will take between four and seven months, depending on the day it launches. This orbital diagram shows the low-energy transfer trajectory of the NASA mission should it launch on Feb. 26, the earliest date in its launch period. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
