NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Is Officially Lost in Space — but Maybe Not Forever
NASA’s Lunar Trail Blazer Mission is in danger. It was launched on February 27 to send the probe to the moon for water. But less than a week after its release, NASA lost track of the spacecraft, which could damage the mission if NASA was unable to reconnect.
The Moon Trail Blazer Mission is NASA’s Simplex Plan,The ,using smaller spacecraft to fund low-cost, high-return missions. These low-cost probes are often included in launches for larger missions, just like a ride-sharing–launched with the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in Florida.
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Communication in space is A little complicated More than they are on Earth, but the general principles are the same. In short, data sent from object transmitters in space is data captured by the receiver and vice versa. However, performing these actions requires power, and when the power goes out, things can get stuck. This is almost the case with Lunar Trail Blazers.
NASA reported this Lunar Trail Blazers telemetry shows that it has begun to spin slowly. NASA believes that this rotation oriented the solar panels from below the sun, causing the satellite to return to a low-power state.
“The Lunar Trailblazer team has been working around the clock to rebuild communication with the spacecraft,” said Nicky Fox, deputy administrator of the board of directors of NASA Science Mission. “NASA has sent out high-risk, high-reward missions, such as the Lunar Trailblazer, to carry out incredible science at a lower cost, and the team really encapsulates the spirit of NASA’s innovation — if anyone can bring the Lunar Lightning store back, it’s them.”
NASA says its best chance to save the Lunar Trail Blazers is to continue spinning until recalibration itself so that the solar panels can get more juice from the sun. It also works with NASA’s deep space network and ground observatory to collect data on the missing satellites.
this The Moon Trail Blazers Mission It is spent six months floating onto the moon, where it will take high-resolution photos of the entire surface. The purpose of this tour is to find water
The mission can still be saved
If NASA re-establishes the contact, the task can still be saved. The connection has been lost to reach its proper orbit to take off from Earth and fly to the moon before the Moon Traiblazer can perform the various small thruster operations required. However, the longer the satellite remains unattainable, the harder it is to achieve the goal.
“The team is now working to define alternative TCM (trajectory correction operation) strategies that can be used after reverifying communications and establishing normal spacecraft functions,” NASA said in a blog post. “These alternative TCM strategies may be able to place the Moon Trailblazers in lunar orbit and allow them to accomplish some scientific goals.”
this The Moon Trail Blazers Mission It is to photograph any water on the moon’s surface to better determine how much is it and what form it takes. If NASA reconnects to it and acquires a new TCM strategy, it will still take about six months for the satellite to reach our nearest celestial neighbor to start the measurement.
Worst connection problem
The connection problem with objects in space is nothing new for NASA or any other space company. At the end of last year, NASA had to activate the radio Voyager 1 has not been used for 40 years Reconstructing contact with ancient satellites. exist NASA hosted live broadcast on the twitchwhile astronaut Don Pettit was in mid-term, the connection to the International Space Station was lost.
Sometimes, connection losses are expected. For example, the Blue Ghost Mission The moon landing was stuck earlier this weekOnce the equipment loses solar energy and the connection is lost, the task will end. In short, the connection problem is an annoying but not very rare problem with space objects.
