WASHINGTON — A cubesat launched on Artemis 1 missed its authentic likelihood to enter orbit across the moon however may nonetheless perform its main mission if engineers repair its thrusters within the coming weeks.
The NASA-funded LunaH-Map spacecraft, a six-unit cubesat, was certainly one of 10 cubesat secondary payloads flown on the Artemis 1 mission on the inaugural launch of the Area Launch System Nov. 16. These payloads had been deployed from the SLS higher stage a number of hours after liftoff.
Within the months main as much as the liftoff there have been issues that the batteries on LunaH-Map may need drained throughout its lengthy await launch. The cubesat couldn’t be charged after it was secured on the rocket within the fall of 2021.
Nevertheless, the batteries had been in good situation when the spacecraft transmitted its first telemetry shortly after deployment. “Our batteries had been at 70% state of cost,” mentioned Craig Hardgrove, principal investigator for LunaH-Map at Arizona State College, throughout a presentation in regards to the mission on the Fall Assembly of the American Geophysical Union Dec. 15. “That was according to our very optimistic predictions.”
Whereas the spacecraft had enough energy, it bumped into issues with its propulsion system. “We had a really transient window to fireplace our propulsion system and hit a lunar gravity help to get again to the moon,” he mentioned. Nevertheless, the thrusters didn’t function as anticipated to allow that maneuver to enter lunar orbit.
LunaH-Map is provided with a BIT-3 ion thruster from Busek that makes use of strong iodine gas. Hardgrove mentioned Doppler ranging information suggests {that a} valve is partially caught, permitting some iodine by way of however not sufficient to generate the required thrust.
Spacecraft engineers are attempting to appropriate the issue with heaters within the propulsion system to liberate the valve. “The sticking is one thing that we knew about,” he mentioned, suggesting it got here from the lengthy await the launch.
If the issue could be fastened by mid-January, he mentioned the spacecraft may take another trajectory to the moon, arriving in January 2024. After that, there are alternatives for sending LunaH-Map to rendezvous with or fly by a close to Earth asteroid.
Different spacecraft methods are working nicely, he mentioned. The spacecraft’s main instrument, a neutron spectrometer designed to search for water ice deposits on the lunar south pole, collected information because it flew by the moon 5 days after launch. “It exhibits that this instrument is able to performing the science investigation that we had deliberate to do,” Hardgrove mentioned.
LunaH-Map shouldn’t be the one cubesat launched on Artemis 1 that suffered technical issues. A Japanese cubesat referred to as OMOTENASHI that was designed to carry out a “semi-hard” touchdown on the moon didn’t generate sufficient energy from its photo voltaic arrays to speak with Earth and was declared a loss.
Controllers have struggled to contact the CubeSat to Research Photo voltaic Particles (CuSP), which additionally appeared to come across a battery drawback, and Close to Earth Asteroid Scout, a cubesat with a photo voltaic sail to fly by an asteroid. Lockheed Martin’s LunIR cubesat encountered an “sudden concern with our radio sign,” the corporate mentioned Dec. 8, however nonetheless thought-about the mission a helpful expertise demonstration.
Hardgrove, in his convention speak, remained optimistic about LunaH-Map. “We’re not lifeless. We’re doing nice,” he mentioned. “I believe we’re hopefully going to ignite our propulsion system quickly.”
