NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission is in jeopardy. It launched on Feb. 27 to send a probe to the moon in search of water. But less than a week after launch, NASA lost track of the spacecraft, which may compromise the mission if NASA can't reestablish contact.
The Lunar Trailblazer mission is part of NASA's SIMPLEx program, which funds low-cost, high-reward missions using smaller spacecraft. These low-cost probes are often included in the launch of larger missions, much like a carpool -- this one launched along with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from Florida.
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Communications in space are a little more complex than they are here on Earth, but the general principles are the same. In short, a transmitter from the object in space sends data that is captured by a receiver on Earth and vice versa. However, performing these actions requires power, and things can get dicey when the power goes out. That's pretty much what happened with the Lunar Trailblazer.
NASA reports that telemetry from the Lunar Trailblazer showed that it had begun a slow spin. This spin, NASA believes, caused the solar panels to orient themselves away from the sun, causing the satellite to revert to a low-power state.
"The Lunar Trailblazer team has been working around the clock to re-establish communications with the spacecraft," said Nicky Fox, the associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. "NASA sends up high-risk, high-reward missions like Lunar Trailblazer to do incredible science at a lower cost, and the team truly encapsulates the NASA innovative spirit -- if anyone can bring Lunar Trailblazer back, it is them."
For now, NASA says the best chance it has at salvaging the Lunar Trailblazer is for it to continue spinning until it reorients itself so that the solar panels get more juice from the sun. It is also working with NASA's Deep Space Network and ground-based observatories to gather data on the lost satellite.
The Lunar Trailblazer's mission is to spend six months floating to the moon, where it'll take high-resolution photos of the entire surface. The purpose of this excursion is to find water
The mission can still be salvaged
Should NASA reestablish the connection, the mission can still be saved. The connection was lost before the Lunar Traiblazer could perform the various small thruster operations necessary to reach its proper orbit to take off from Earth and fly to the moon. However, the longer the satellite remains unreachable, the more difficult it will be to complete the objective.
"The team is now working to define alternative TCM (trajectory correction maneuvers) strategies that could be used after reacquiring communications and establishing normal spacecraft functionality," NASA said in a blog post. "These alternative TCM strategies may be able to place Lunar Trailblazer in lunar orbit and allow it to complete some of its science objectives."
The Lunar Trailblazer's mission is meant to be a low-cost, high-reward endeavor to photograph any water on the moon's surface to better ascertain how much is there and what forms it takes. Should NASA reconnect with it and the new TCM strategies are successful, the satellite will still take about six months to reach our nearest celestial neighbor to begin taking measurements.
The worst kind of connection issues
Connection issues with objects in space are nothing new for NASA or any other space agency. Late last year, NASA had to activate a radio that Voyager 1 hadn't used in 40 years to reestablish contact with the ancient satellite. During a NASA-hosted livestream on Twitch, connection to the International Space Station was lost while astronaut Don Pettit was in mid-sentence.
Sometimes, connection losses are expected. For example, the Blue Ghost mission stuck its moon landing earlier this week, and that mission will end once the equipment loses its solar power and the connection is lost. In short, connection issues are an annoying but not infrequent issue with space objects.
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