Lunar Trailblazer looks into the permanently shaded regions of the moon and recognizes signatures of water ice in reflected light and locates the positions of micro-cold traps that are smaller than a football field. Photo credit: Lockheed Martin
Lunar Trailblazer maps to locate ice or water trapped in rocks on the lunar surface NASAEfforts for a sustainable presence on the moon.
A small satellite mission to understand the lunar cycle – collecting and mapping water on the lunar surface to study how shape, abundance, and location affect geology – has received NASA approval to proceed with the next phase of its development.
On November 24th, the Lunar Trailblazer, a mission selected under NASA’s SIMPLEx (Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration) program, reached its key decision point-C (KDP-C) milestone and received approval Get agency level to begin with the final hardware and build hardware design. The milestone also contains the project’s official schedule and budget.
“Lunar Trailblazer will confirm whether the water on the moon is firmly bound in crystalline rock, as recently suggested by NASA’s SOFIA observations (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), or, depending on the temperature, is loosely bound and mobile,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at the agency’s Washington headquarters. “This SIMPLEx mission expands our portfolio of targeted scientific missions that are designed to test pioneering technologies and, at the same time, reduce overall costs with the help of new, optimized processes.”
Lunar Trailblazer creates the highest resolution basemaps for locating ice or water trapped in rocks on the moon’s surface and supports NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable presence on the moon by the end of the decade and prepare for missions includes with crew Mars.
“We’re excited to have a small satellite to help answer big planetary science questions by creating the new maps of water on the moon,” said Bethany Ehlmann, Caltech’s principal researcher. “Given the importance of water on the moon in future robotic and human missions, Lunar Trailblazer will provide vital basemaps for future exploration.”
Lunar Trailblazer looks into the permanently shaded regions of the moon and recognizes signatures of ice in reflected light and locates the positions of micro-cold traps that are smaller than a soccer field. The mission collects measurements at multiple times of the day over sunlit regions and helps scientists understand whether the water signature on the illuminated surface changes when the lunar surface temperature changes hundreds of degrees over the course of a lunar day.
“The Lunar Trailblazer will greatly improve our understanding of the water cycle in airless bodies like the moon,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science division at the agency’s Washington headquarters. “Lunar Trailblazer measures both direct light and small amounts of scattered light in the field and creates comprehensive maps of the surface water ice even in the darkest regions of the moon.”
Lunar Trailblazer was selected in 2019 and is the second mission from the current program round to receive confirmation and plan to ship its flight system in October 2022. The start is currently planned for February 2025. The Janus mission received its confirmation in early September 2020 and will study the formation and evolution of small asteroids from space. The mission Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (EscaPADE) is still in the formulation. The KDP-C is planned for summer 2021.
“Lunar Trailblazer has a talented, multi-institutional team whose combined efforts resulted in a successful formulation phase and verification review,” said Calina Seybold, project manager for Lunar Trailblazer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “I am thrilled that the team has the privilege of continuing our final design and manufacturing phase.”
Lunar Trailblazer is administered by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California as part of NASA’s Washington Headquarters Solar System Exploration Program, which is aligned with the Agency’s priorities and the National Academy of Sciences’ Decadal Survey Process. Managed for NASA by Caltech of Pasadena, California, JPL also provides systems engineering and mission control and navigation. Lockheed Martin is supplying the spaceship and integrating the flight system on behalf of Caltech.
SIMPLEx mission investigations are administered by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of the Solar System Exploration Program at NASA’s Washington headquarters. The program conducts space science studies in the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Directorate of Science Mission at NASA Headquarters, based on the priorities of the NASA Agency and the National Academy of Sciences’ Decadal Survey process.
