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Lunar orbiter by NASA
Lunar Flashlight
was a low-cost
CubeSat
lunar orbiter mission to explore, locate, and estimate size and composition of
water ice deposits on the Moon
for future exploitation by robots or humans.
[1]
[3]
[2]
[4]
[5]
[6]
The spacecraft, of the 6U
CubeSat
format, was developed by a team from the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL), the
Goddard Space Flight Center
(GSFC), the
Georgia Institute of Technology
(GT), and NASA
Marshall Space Flight Center
.
[4]
It was selected in early 2015 by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) for launch in 2022 as a secondary payload for the
Artemis 1
mission, though it missed the integration window to be included on the mission.
[7]
Lunar Flashlight was remanifested to launch as a rideshare with the
Hakuto-R Mission 1
on a
Falcon 9 Block 5
. The launch took place on 11 December 2022.
[8]
A failure of the craft's propulsion system resulted in Lunar Flashlight being unable to enter orbit around the Moon and NASA terminated the mission on May 12, 2023.
[9]
[10]
The spacecraft has since been abandoned in a solar orbit after flying by Earth on May 17 for a coincidental gravity assist.
History
[
edit
]
NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (
LCROSS
), the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
(LRO) and India's
Chandrayaan-1
lunar orbiters and other missions discovered in 2009 both water (H
2
O) and hydroxyl (?OH
?
) deposits at high latitudes on the lunar surface, indicating the presence of trace amounts of
adsorbed
or bound water are present.
[3]
These missions suggest that there might be enough ice water at polar regions to be used by future landed missions,
[5]
[6]
but the distribution is difficult to reconcile with thermal maps.
[3]
Lunar prospecting missions are intended to pave the way toward incorporating use of space resources into mission architectures. NASA's planning for eventual
Human mission to Mars
depends on tapping the local natural resources to make oxygen and propellant for launching the return ship back to Earth, and a lunar precursor mission is a convenient location to test such
in situ resource utilization
(ISRU) technology.
[11]
The mission concept was developed by a team from the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(JPL), the
University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA), and NASA
Marshall Space Flight Center
and proposed to NASA's FY2014 Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) call.
[3]
[4]
The mission was selected for funding in early 2015.
[5]
[12]
Spacecraft design
[
edit
]
In its original conception, the Lunar Flashlight spacecraft would have been a 6U
CubeSat
format or
bus
propelled by an 80 m
2
solar sail
that would also have functioned as reflector to illuminate some selected
permanently shadowed areas
on the Moon,
[5]
while an onboard
infrared spectrometer
measured the reflected spectrum diagnostic of surface compositional mix among rock/dust, regolith, water ice, CO
2
, methane ice (CH
4
), and possibly
ammonia
ice (NH
3
).
[3]
[2]
[5]
The illuminated spot would have been about 400 m (1,300 ft) in diameter, reflected from an altitude of 20 km (12 mi).
In the final design, the Lunar Flashlight spacecraft includes two sets of solar arrays. One set delivered by Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) which deploys upon release from the dispenser and another delivered by MMA which use a burnwire deployment mechanism. The Command and Data Handling is provided via the JPL-developed Sphinx processor with flight software written using the JPL-developed FPrime software framework. The on-board radio is an Iris radio developed by JPL and build by
Space Dynamics Laboratory
. The attitude determination and control system (ADCS) for the spacecraft is provided by a BCT XACT-50. The spacecraft includes a chemical propulsion system to provide the impulse needed for Lunar Orbital Insertion (LOI). This propulsion system was designed and built by Georgia Tech’s Glenn Lightsey Research Group in collaboration with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Finally, the science instrument payload is a compact Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) Laser reflectometer.
[13]
Overview and objectives
[
edit
]
The goal of Lunar Flashlight is to determine the presence or absence of exposed water ice and its physical state, and map its concentration at the 1-2 kilometer scale within the permanently shadowed regions of the
lunar south pole
.
[4]
[14]
[15]
The mission will be one of the first CubeSats to reach the Moon, and the first mission to use lasers to look for water ice.
[1]
Any polar volatile data collected by Lunar Flashlight could then ensure the most appropriate landing sites for a more expensive rover to perform
in situ
measurements and chemical analyses.
[5]
The spacecraft will maneuver to its lunar polar orbit and use its
near infrared
lasers
to shine light into the shaded polar regions, while the on-board spectrometer measures surface reflection and composition.
[1]
Barbara Cohen
from the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center
is the principal investigator.
[4]
Scientific payload
[
edit
]
The proposed payload on this
nanosatellite
is an
infrared spectrometer
, consisting of a lens, dichroic beam splitters and multiple single-element detectors. It occupies 2 of the 6 modules of the 6U
CubeSat
bus.
[3]
The attitude control system (Blue Canyon Technologies' XACT-50), command and data handling, and power systems will occupy 1.5U; the Iris telecom system will occupy 0.5U.
[2]
The Lunar Flashlight payload is derived from a few predecessor systems, including JPL's INSPIRE (Interplanetary Nano-Spacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment), MARCO (
Mars Cube One
) and JPL's experience with
spectrometers
, including the
Moon Mineralogy Mapper
(M3).
[1]
The 6U CubeSat bus will use mostly commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components such as the
lithium ion batteries
, the
CPU board
, HaWK
solar panels
produced by
MMA Design LLC
,
star tracker
and 3-axis
reaction wheels
for
attitude control
.
[3]
The CPU is a "Rad-Tol Dependable Multiprocessor".
[2]
JPL will provide the
Iris transponder
that provides timing, navigation and telecommunication in the
X band
,
[3]
which is to be monitored with the
NASA Deep Space Network
.
[2]
Spacecraft design and trajectory
[
edit
]
The Lunar Flashlight spacecraft was ejected from the
Falcon 9
second stage after
trans-lunar injection
, after which it used a
Sun sensor
and
solar panels
to power the 3-axes
reaction wheels
. It also featured a chemical
monopropellant
propulsion and orientation system built by the Georgia Tech Space System Design Laboratory. The propulsion system occupied 3U of volume including 2 kg of AF-M315E monopropellant,
[16]
a less toxic
HAN
-based monopropellant being used in lieu of
hydrazine
. The intricate propellant management unit was fabricated using
additive manufacturing
.
[16]
[17]
Thruster problems
[
edit
]
During the first few days of flight (December 2022), it was found that 3 of the 4 thrusters were underperforming. As of January 2023 the mission team was working to remedy the problem.
[18]
Limited success was achieved with the other 3 thrusters by May 2023.
[19]
Orbit
[
edit
]
The spacecraft was planned to be the second to use a
near-rectilinear halo orbit
, the first being the
CAPSTONE
mission.
[17]
The original concept proposed a trajectory that would target multiple lunar flybys, and possibly include an Earth
gravity assist
; it would have been captured into a lunar polar orbit one or two months after launch, depending on the selected trajectory.
[3]
Lunar Flashlight
·
Earth
·
Moon
See also
[
edit
]
- The 10
CubeSats
that flew in the
Artemis 1
mission
- The 3 CubeSat missions that were not loaded onto Artemis 1
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Lunar Flashlight Mission Information"
. JPL (NASA). April 2016
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Hayne, P. O.; Cohen, B. A.; B. T., B. T. (21 March 2016).
Lunar Flashlight: Illuminating the Moon's South Pole
. 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Cohen, Barbara A. (2013).
Lunar Flashlight: Mapping lunar surface volatiles using a CubeSat
(PDF)
. Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (2013). NASA
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"NASA TechPort: Lunar Flashlight Project"
.
NASA TechPort
. NASA. 2015
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Lunar Flashlight"
.
Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI)
. NASA. 2015
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
a
b
Wall, Mike (9 October 2014).
"NASA Is Studying How to Mine the Moon for Water"
. SPACE.com
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
- ^
Ohana, Lavie (3 October 2021).
"Four Artemis I CubeSats miss their ride"
.
Space Scout
. Retrieved
6 October
2021
.
- ^
Rosenstein, Sawyer (11 December 2022).
"SpaceX launches Falcon 9 carrying private Japanese moon lander"
.
NASASpaceFlight
. Retrieved
11 December
2022
.
- ^
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
.
"NASA Calls End to Lunar Flashlight After Some Tech Successes"
.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
. Retrieved
12 May
2023
.
- ^
Foust, Jeff (9 August 2023).
"Clogged propellant lines doomed NASA lunar cubesat mission"
.
SpaceNews
. Retrieved
10 August
2023
.
- ^
"NASA Looking to Mine Water on the Moon and Mars"
.
Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI)
. NASA. 2015
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
.
- ^
Misra, Ria (2 February 2016).
"NASA's New Mission to Mars Will Include a Giant Laser "Lunar Flashlight"
"
. Gizmodo
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
- ^
Cheek, Nathan; Gonzalez, Collin; Adell, Phillippe; Baker, John; Ryan, Chad; Statham, Shannon; Lightsey, E.; Smith, Celeste; Awald, Conner; Ready, Jud (8 August 2022).
"Systems Integration and Test of the Lunar Flashlight Spacecraft"
.
Small Satellite Conference
.
- ^
"LUNAR FLASHLIGHT: MAPPING LUNAR SURFACE VOLATILES USING A CUBESAT"
(PDF)
.
Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (2014)
. 2014
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
- ^
Cohen, Barbara (2016).
"CubeSat for investigating ice on the Moon"
.
SPIE Newsroom
. SPIE.org.
doi
:
10.1117/2.1201601.006241
.
ISSN
1818-2259
. Retrieved
11 March
2021
.
- ^
a
b
"Lunar Flashlight Propulsion System"
. Retrieved
23 April
2021
.
- ^
a
b
JPL/NASA (28 November 2022).
"NASA's Lunar Flashlight SmallSat readies for launch"
.
- ^
JPL/NASA.
"NASA's Lunar Flashlight Team Assessing Spacecraft's Propulsion System"
.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
. Retrieved
8 February
2023
.
- ^
Team Continues to Troubleshoot Propulsion for NASA's Lunar Flashlight
9 May 2023
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× 5,
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,
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(3 satellites)
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/
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761
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Launches are separated by dots ( ? ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
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