NASA calls end to Lunar Flashlight mission after some tech successes

Whereas the CubeSat could not attain the lunar South Pole to assist search ice, it fulfilled a number of know-how targets that can empower future missions for the good thing about humanity.

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight launched on Dec. 11, 2022, to display a number of new applied sciences, with an final aim to hunt out floor ice within the completely shadowed craters of the moon’s South Pole. Since then, the briefcase-size satellite’s miniaturized propulsion system—the primary of its variety ever flown—proved unable to generate sufficient thrust to get into lunar orbit, regardless of months of effort by the operations crew. As a result of the CubeSat can’t full maneuvers to remain within the Earth-moon system, NASA has referred to as an finish to the mission.

NASA depends on know-how demonstrations to fill particular data gaps and to check new applied sciences. Used for the primary time past Earth’s orbit, Lunar Flashlight’s propulsion system and green fuel have been such demonstrations. Though the propulsion system was unable to supply the specified thrust—probably due to particles buildup within the thruster gas strains—newly developed propulsion system elements exceeded efficiency expectations.

Additionally surpassing expectations have been Lunar Flashlight’s never-before-flown Sphinx flight pc—a low-power pc developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to face up to the radiation of deep space—and the spacecraft’s upgraded Iris radio. That includes a brand new precision navigation functionality, the radio can be utilized by future small spacecraft to rendezvous and land on solar system our bodies.

“Know-how demonstrations are, by their nature, increased threat and excessive reward, they usually’re important for NASA to check and be taught,” stated Christopher Baker, program government for Small Spacecraft Know-how within the House Know-how Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Lunar Flashlight was extremely profitable from the standpoint of being a testbed for brand spanking new methods that had by no means flown in space earlier than. These methods, and the teachings Lunar Flashlight taught us, can be used for future missions.”

The mission’s miniaturized four-laser reflectometer, a science instrument that had by no means flown earlier than, both, additionally examined efficiently, giving the mission’s science crew confidence that the laser would have been capable of detect ice if it have been current on the lunar surface.

“It is disappointing for the science crew, and for the entire Lunar Flashlight crew, that we cannot be capable to use our laser reflectometer to make measurements on the moon,” stated Barbara Cohen, the mission’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard House Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland. “However like all the opposite methods, we collected a number of in-flight efficiency knowledge on the instrument that can be extremely precious to future iterations of this system.”

Propulsion system efficiency challenges

Regardless of the mission’s technological wins, Lunar Flashlight’s miniaturized propulsion system struggled to offer enough thrust to place the CubeSat on track for the deliberate near-rectilinear halo orbit that may have given the spacecraft weekly flybys of the moon’s South Pole.

The crew suspects that particles obstructed the gas strains, inflicting the diminished and inconsistent thrust. The miniaturized propulsion system included an additively manufactured gas feed system that probably developed the particles—comparable to steel powder or shavings—and obstructed gas movement to the thrusters, limiting their efficiency. Though the crew devised a artistic methodology for utilizing only one thruster to maneuver the spacecraft, Lunar Flashlight wanted extra constant thrust to succeed in its deliberate orbit.

The operations crew calculated a brand new orbit that might be reached utilizing the spacecraft’s small quantity of potential remaining thrust. The plan referred to as for placing the CubeSat on a path that may place it in orbit round Earth fairly than the moon, with month-to-month flybys of the lunar South Pole. Whereas this might have meant fewer flybys, the spacecraft would have flown nearer to the floor.

With the mission working out of time to reach on the wanted orbit, the operations crew tried to dislodge any particles from the gas strains by growing the gas strain properly past the propulsion system’s designed capability. Regardless of restricted success, the required trajectory correction maneuvers could not be accomplished in time.

“The coed operations crew at Georgia Tech, with help from JPL and NASA’s Marshall House Flight Middle, rose to the problem and got here up with an unbelievable array of creative strategies to make the most of what tiny quantity of thrust Lunar Flashlight’s propulsion system might ship,” stated John Baker, Lunar Flashlight challenge supervisor at JPL. “We discovered quite a bit and honed new strategies and techniques for working with tiny spacecraft.”

After having traveled out previous the moon, Lunar Flashlight is now shifting again towards Earth and can fly previous our planet with an in depth method of about 40,000 miles (65,000 kilometers) on Might 17. The CubeSat will then proceed into deep space and orbit the sun. It continues to speak with mission operators, and NASA is weighing choices for the way forward for the spacecraft.