NASA's Lunar Trailblazer micromission will take macro measurements of the lunar surface in 2025

NASA upcoming Artemis II mission The plan is to return astronauts to the Moon no sooner than April 2026. The last time astronauts were on the moon was in 1972 Apollo 17 mission.

Artemis II will use NASA's Space Launch SystemThis is a particularly powerful rocket that may enable human space exploration beyond Earth's atmosphere. The crew of 4 will travel in a single Orion spacecraftwhich the agency launched across the moon and returned successfully during Artemis I mission.

But before Artemis II, NASA will send two missions to explore the surface of the lunar south pole for resources that would support human spaceflight and enable latest scientific discoveries.

Planetary geologists like me are desirous about data from Lunar Trailblazer, certainly one of these two exploration missions. The data for this mission might be help us to grasp how water forms and behaves on rocky planets and moons.

Starting with scientific exploration

PRIME-1or the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment, might be mounted on a lunar lander. The start is planned for January 2025.

There are two instruments on board the lander: The regolith and ice drill for exploring latest terrainTrident and the Mass spectrometer for observing lunar operationsMSOLO. TRIDENT will dig as much as 1 meter deep and collect lunar soil samples, and MSOLO will assess the chemical composition and water content of the soil.

Participating within the lunar mining experiment is Lunar Trailblazer, a satellite launching on the moon Falcon 9 rocket.

Think of this setup as a multimillion-dollar satellite Uber Poolor a ridesharing arrangement wherein multiple missions share a rocket, minimizing fuel consumption while avoiding Earth's gravitational pull.

Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientistis the principal investigator of Lunar Trailblazer and leads an operations team Scientists and students from Caltech campus. Trailblazer is a NASA Small, progressive planetary exploration mission, or SIMPLEx.

The aim of those missions is to supply practical operational experience at a lower cost. Each SIMPLEx mission is capped at a budget of $55 million – Trailblazer is barely over budget at $80 million. Even if it goes over budget, this mission will cost a couple of quarter of a typical robotic mission NASA's Discovery Program. Discovery program missions typically cost around $300 million, with a maximum budget of $500 million.

Building small but powerful satellites

Decades of research and development in the sphere of small satellites or SmallSatsopened up the likelihood for Trailblazer. SmallSats perform highly specific measurements and complement data obtained from other instruments.

Multiple SmallSats working together in a constellation can take various measurements concurrently, providing a high-resolution view of the Earth or Moon's surface.

SIMPLEx missions can use these SmallSats. Because they’re small and cheaper, they permit researchers to research questions that include one higher technical risk. Lunar Trailblazer uses for instance commercially available commercially available parts to maintain costs down.

These low-cost, high-risk experimental missions might help geologists higher understand the origins of the solar system, what it’s product of and the way it has modified over time. Lunar Trailblazer will specifically give attention to mapping the Moon.

A Brief Timeline of Water Discoveries on the Moon

Scientists have long been fascinated by the surface of our nearest celestial neighbor, the Moon. As early because the mid-Seventeenth century, astronomers incorrectly characterised ancient volcanic eruptions as Monthly maximumderived from the Latin word for “seas”.

Almost two centuries later, astronomer Calculations by William Pickering suspected that the moon had no atmosphere. From this he concluded that the moon couldn’t have water on its surface because this water would evaporate.

In the Nineties, nonetheless, NASA Clementine Mission discovered water on the moon. Clementine was the primary mission to completely map the lunar surface, including the lunar poles. This data showed the presence of ice inside permanently shaded areas on the moon in low resolution.

The first discovery of water by scientists sparked further investigation. NASA began this Lunar prospector in 1998 and the Lunar reconnaissance orbiter in 2009. The India Space Research Organization launched its Chandrayaan-1 mission with the Cartographer of lunar mineralogyM3, instrument in 2008. Although M3 was not designed to detect liquid water, it unexpectedly found it in sunlit areas on the Moon.

These missions collectively provided maps showing how water-containing minerals – minerals that contain water molecules of their chemical composition – and ice water are distributed on the lunar surface, especially within the cold, dark, permanently shadowed regions.

Novel mission, novel science

But how do the temperature and physical state of water on the Moon change attributable to variations in sunlight and crater shadows?

Hosted by Lunar Trailblazer two instrumentsThe Lunar Thermal MapperLTM and an additional development of the M3 instrument, the High-resolution lunar mapper for volatiles and mineralsHVM3.

The LTM instrument will map surface temperatures, while the HVM3 will measure how lunar rocks absorb light. These measurements enable the detection and differentiation of water in liquid form and ice form.

Together, these instruments will provide thermal and chemical measurements of water-bearing lunar rocks. You will measure the water level when you do that different times of the lunar daywhich is reminiscent of about 29.5 Earth days, to point out how the chemical composition of water varies depending on the time of day and site on the Moon.

These results will tell researchers what phase – solid or liquid – the water is in.

Scientific significance and what comes next

There are three leading theories in regards to the origin of moon water. It could possibly be water that has been stored within the moon since its formation. in its mantle layer. Some geological processes can have caused it to slowly rise to the surface over time.

Or the water could have it arrived on asteroids and comets that collided with the lunar surface. Maybe it even was arise through interactions with the solar wind, a stream of particles that comes from the sun.

Lunar Trailblazer could make clear these theories and help researchers make progress on several other big scientific questions, including how water behaves on rocky bodies just like the moon and whether future astronauts can use it.