2023-05-16 05:02:14
NASA has withdrawn the Lunar Flashlight project, which was designed to search for sources of ice on the nearest planets, as the agency has spent the past few months trying and failing to get the spacecraft to generate the thrust needed to generate the planetesimals. satellite to the destination you want.
Officials say the problem is likely caused by debris building up in the fuel lines, which has prevented the CubeSat from operating at full capacity.
The “suitcase-sized” moon flashlight was first launched in December and was developed by students at Georgia Tech. Once deployed, it is expected to embark on a four-month trip to the moon, following which it will search for surface water ice on the lunar surface. The south pole of the moon is always dark
Unfortunately, despite months of trying to solve this problem, the spacecraft will pass by Earth and then go into orbit, but hopefully not too close to the sun.
NASA chose a half-glass approach to failure, given the success of many components of the project. The mission, while disappointing, first demonstrated the effectiveness of several tools, said Barbara Cohen, principal investigator at Goddard Space Flight Center. It was used on an Earth satellite, and the researchers “collected a lot of in-flight performance data on the device that will be invaluable for future iteration.”
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