Engineers Are Racing to Salvage a Cubesat That Launched With NASA’s Moon Mission

A foreign mission to measure lunar water - ice on the Moon is in jeopardy after the cubesat failed to fire its railway locomotive shortly after launching . Time is now turn tail out , as the team has until mid - January to fix the spacecraft ’s thrusters and give it a 2nd chance to enter lunar orbit .

NASA ’s LunaH - Map , manufactured by Arizona State University , was one of 10 cubesats launch on November 16 , 2022 as secondary payloadsaboard the Artemis 1 military mission . The tiny investigation wasone of six cubesats cable of get off radio signalto ground team , in what was an upsetting rate of corrasion .

I’M ALIVE ! ! !

An illustration of LunaH-Map in orbit around the Moon.

An illustration of LunaH-Map in orbit around the Moon.Illustration: Arizona State University

— LunaH - Map ( @lunahmap)November 16 , 2022

thing were await good for LunaH - Map until the following day , when missionary post controllers tried to engage the cubesat ’s actuation system of rules and execute a crucial course correction maneuver . Despite several effort , the spacecraftfailed to fuel its engines , preventing it from performing its intended lunar flyby on November 21 . LunaH - Map was supposed to apply this propellent maneuver to direct it towards its compass around the Moon .

Engineers are hoping to force out LunaH - Map ’s thrusters in the coming weeks such that the ballistic capsule can take an substitute path to the Moon , Craig Hardgrove , principal investigator for LunaH - Map at Arizona State University , said during a presentation about the mission at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December , SpaceNewsreported . The team has until mid - January to do so , otherwise the investigation will never reach any variety of orbit around the Moon .

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Data collected so far suggests that a valve within the spacecraft ’s thrusters is partly stay put . Engineers are attempting to use warmer in the actuation system to liberate the valve . Should the space vehicle drop its second shot at entering lunar area , the mission team will consider sending LunaH - Map towards a near - solid ground asteroid , according to Hardgrove .

WhileNASA ’s Artemis 1 mission was a succeeder , its secondary payload has not been so lucky , with the majority of cubesats carry for the lunar missionfailing at some degree after launch . The mission suffered several time lag and engineers were only able-bodied to recharge four out of 10 cubesats already wad inside the Space Launch System ( SLS ) rocket . NASA was apprehensive that its LunaH - Map cubesat would not have enough magnate to live on the journeying to the Moon and fill out its mission of measuring water - water ice in the shadowed region of the lunar airfoil , but this evidence to not be a job . The jammed valve is another account .

It wo n’t be long before we notice out LunaH - Map ’s lot once and for all , but hopefully this petite probe can make it all the way to the Moon .

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