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.