Latest news with #LunarTrailblazer
Time of India
5 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
NASA's $94 million Lunar Trailblazer mission ends in silence after launch failure
NASA has sent numerous satellites as a part of the ongoing missions to explore the unknown phenomenon in space, and recently, they made the difficult decision to officially terminate its Lunar Trailblazer mission after months of attempts to recover the small orbiter. The mission was designed to find out some valuable facts by mapping and characterizing water reserves on the Moon's surface. However, early on in its journey, the spacecraft lost communication and was presumed to be tumbling without sufficient power to operate. NASA recently announced the mission's end, which came as a disappointing outcome for a project that was supposed to support future lunar missions. What is the Lunar Trailblazer Mission Lunar Trailblazer is a 200‑kg orbiter under NASA's low‑cost SIMPLEx program, which was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 26, 2025, as a rideshare on the IM‑2 mission to the Moon. About 48 minutes into the flight, it separated successfully, and initial contact was made later that evening from Caltech's IPAC in Pasadena. However, by early morning the next day, communication was lost due to intermittent power problems, and engineers soon found out that the spacecraft was spinning and unable to keep its solar panels pointed toward the Sun, according to information by NASA. NASA tried to recover the lost contact NASA worked tirelessly through spring and summer, attempting to reestablish contact in mid‑June and early July. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Susan Boyle Is Now so Thin and Looks Beautiful! Undo Teams from NASA's Deep Space Network and various international observatories monitored the orbiter's trajectory, orientation, and potential sunlight exposure. Scientists hoped that if enough sunlight hit the spacecraft's solar panels, the batteries might get enough charge for the Lunar Trailblazer to wake up and send a signal again. NASA even had backup plans ready in case they managed to reconnect and keep the mission going. Despite these consistent efforts, Lunar Trailblazer drifted beyond the Moon and into deep space, spinning ever more slowly and becoming too distant to command or receive telemetry. Teams at JPL and Caltech finally acknowledged the mission could no longer yield scientific results, leading NASA to officially end it on July 31, 2025. This unsuccessful mission is a lesson for future missions According to reports by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 'At NASA, we undertake high‑risk, high‑reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to find revolutionary ways of doing new science,' said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. 'While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low‑cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the Moon. ' The trailblazer had a companion Lunar Trailblazer shared its ride with the Athena lander, part of Intuitive Machines' IM‑2 mission. Athena successfully touched down near the lunar south pole on March 6, 2025, but shortly thereafter toppled over. In a compromised orientation, its solar panels could not recharge the batteries, ending its surface mission prematurely, delivering only limited data before it went silent the next day.
Digital Trends
6 days ago
- Science
- Digital Trends
Sadly, NASA's Lunar Trailblazer failed to do what it said on the tin
NASA has given up trying to reestablish contact with a small spacecraft that launched in February to map lunar water. The Lunar Trailblazer hitched a ride on the second Intuitive Machines robotic lunar lander mission, IM-2, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 26, 2025. Recommended Videos The spacecraft separated as planned from the rocket about 48 minutes after launch, and the mission team established communications with it about 10 minutes later. But contact was lost the following day and was never reestablished, preventing them team from performing the necessary thruster operations to keep the spacecraft on its flight trajectory toward the moon. And on Monday, NASA said the mission was officially over. The space agency added that from the limited data it had received, it appeared that the spacecraft's solar arrays had failed to properly orient toward the sun, causing its batteries to lose power. 'While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the moon,' Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a release, adding: 'Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end.' The goal of the mission was to create high-resolution maps of water on the moon's surface. It could also have revealed what form the water is in, the amount present, and how it changes over time. NASA said the the maps built by the Lunar Trailblazer would also have supported future robotic missions and human exploration of the moon. More broadly, the endeavor could have helped scientists to better understand water cycles on airless bodies in our solar system. In an effort to save the spacecraft, a number of organizations around the world had been listening for the the Lunar Trailblazer's radio signal while also tracking its position. But data from ground radar and optical observations indicated that Lunar Trailblazer was in a slow spin and heading deeper into space. While the team had been hoping that the solar panels might receive sunlight and charge the batteries with enough power to turn on the radio and give it a chance of making contact, it never happened, and the Lunar Spacecraft is now too distant to save.
UPI
7 days ago
- Science
- UPI
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission ends without mapping moon
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer sits in a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space in Colorado during testing in August 2024. The mission was to investigate the nature of the Moon's water, but controllers lost contact with the spacecraft a day after launch in February. Lockheed Martin photo via NASA Aug. 4 (UPI) -- NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission to the moon ended in failure after the government agency lost contact with the spacecraft one day after the launch in February and never regained communication despite extensive efforts. The mission ended Friday, NASA said Monday in a news release. On Feb. 26, the satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin Space, successfully separated from the rocket 38 minutes after launch. Another spacecraft, the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment, touched down on the lunar surface on March 6 near the moon's south pole. But because the Athena lander was resting in its side inside a crater, the mission lasted only 10 hours instead of 10 days because it couldn't recharge its solar cells. The Lunard Trailblazer didn't make the 238,000-mile journey from Earth to the moon's surface. "At NASA, we undertake high-risk, high-reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to find revolutionary ways of doing new science," Nicky Fox, associate administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said. "While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the moon. Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end." Limited data after the launch determined Lunar Trailblazer's solar arrays were not properly oriented toward the sun. The batteries then were depleted. NASA said several collaborating organizations worldwide listened for the spacecraft's radio signal and tracked its position. "As Lunar Trailblazer drifted far beyond the Moon, our models showed that the solar panels might receive more sunlight, perhaps charging the spacecraft's batteries to a point it could turn on its radio," Andrew Klesh, Lunar Trailblazer's project systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said. "The global community's support helped us better understand the spacecraft's spin, pointing, and trajectory. In space exploration, collaboration is critical -- this gave us the best chance to try to regain contact." Based on ground radar and optical observations, the Lunar Trailblazer was in a slow spin going into deep space. The spacecraft became too distant and its signal would have been too weak even if it got energy. JPL built the satellites' high-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper imaging spectrometer to detect and map water and minerals. The Spectrometer has been approved for a future orbital flight. The Union of Oxford, with funding by the British Space Agency, built the Lunar Thermal Mapper instrument to gather temperature data and determine the composition of silicate rocks and soils to improve understanding why water content varies over time. "We're immensely disappointed that our spacecraft didn't get to the Moon, but the two science instruments we developed, like the teams we brought together, are world-class," said Bethany Ehlmann, the mission's principal investigator at Caltech. "This collective knowledge and the technology developed will cross-pollinate to other projects as the planetary science community continues work to better understand the Moon's water." In the 1990s, NASA's Clementine mission detected water on the moon -- the first spacecraft to completely map the lunar surface. The lunar-mapping missions are intended to further scout surfaces for water that could sustain humans. The Artemis II is scheduled to reach the moon no earlier than April 26, and a crewed Artemis III is planned for mid-2027 aboard the Orion spacecraft. Humans have not been on the moon since 1972.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission ends in disappointment
The Lunar Trailblazer mission to the moon officially ended on July 31, but it wasn't a complete journey. NASA said today that its teams lost contact with the satellite shortly after its launch several months prior. The NASA satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines, which took off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on February 26 at 7:16PM ET. The Lunar Trailblazer successfully separated from the rocket as planned about 48 minutes after launch. Operators in Pasadena, CA established communication with the satellite at 8:13PM ET, but two-way communication was lost the next day and the team was unable to recover the connection. From the limited data ground teams received before the satellite went dark, the craft's solar arrays were not correctly positioned toward the sun, which caused its batteries to drain. "While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the Moon," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator at NASA Headquarters' Science Mission Directorate. "Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end." The Lunar Trailblazer mission was one of several commercial spaceflights planned for travel to the moon during 2025. Its goal was to create high-resolution maps of any water on the moon's surface, as well as assessing how much water was present, in what forms and how it may have changed over time. Fingers crossed the remaining missions have better success.
Engadget
7 days ago
- Science
- Engadget
NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission ends in disappointment
The Lunar Trailblazer mission to the moon officially ended on July 31, but it wasn't a complete journey. NASA said today that its teams lost contact with the satellite shortly after its launch several months prior. The NASA satellite was part of the IM-2 mission by Intuitive Machines, which took off from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center on February 26 at 7:16PM ET. The Lunar Trailblazer successfully separated from the rocket as planned about 48 minutes after launch. Operators in Pasadena, CA established communication with the satellite at 8:13PM ET, but two-way communication was lost the next day and the team was unable to recover the connection. From the limited data ground teams received before the satellite went dark, the craft's solar arrays were not correctly positioned toward the sun, which caused its batteries to drain. "While it was not the outcome we had hoped for, mission experiences like Lunar Trailblazer help us to learn and reduce the risk for future, low-cost small satellites to do innovative science as we prepare for a sustained human presence on the Moon," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator at NASA Headquarters' Science Mission Directorate. "Thank you to the Lunar Trailblazer team for their dedication in working on and learning from this mission through to the end." The Lunar Trailblazer mission was one of several commercial spaceflights planned for travel to the moon during 2025. Its goal was to create high-resolution maps of any water on the moon's surface, as well as assessing how much water was present, in what forms and how it may have changed over time. Fingers crossed the remaining missions have better success.
