Is NASA’s lunar satellite in danger? Problems with the propulsion system of the Lunar Fleshlight spacecraft

control The mission is characterizing its new “green” propulsion system and developing an updated plan for the Lunar Fleshlight’s journey to the Moon

This artist rendering shows the briefcase-sized probe Lunar Flashlight using its near-infrared lasers to illuminate dark polar regions on the moon and search for water ice. Credit: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight mission was successfully launched on December 1, 2022 and began a four-month journey to the moon, where the small satellite will test some new technologies to search for hidden ground ice at the moon’s south pole. The satellite is in good overall condition and communicating with NASA’s Deep Space Network, but the mission’s operations team discovered that three of its four thrusters were malfunctioning.

The mission team, which first noticed the reduced thrust three days after launch, is analyzing the problem to provide possible solutions. During its flight, the Lunar Fleshlight’s propulsion system operated in short pulses of up to a few seconds at a time. Based on ground tests, the team thinks the malfunction may have been caused by blockages in the fuel lines that may be restricting the flow of propellant to the engines.

This illustration shows Lunar Flashlight performing an orbit correction maneuver with the Moon and Earth in the background. The maneuver, powered by the small satellite’s four thrusters, is necessary to reach lunar orbit. Credit: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The team soon intends to run the engines for much longer periods of time, hoping to clear any potential blockages in the engines’ fuel lines while performing orbit correction maneuvers that will keep the satellite on track to reach its planned orbit around the moon. If it is not possible to restore the propulsion system to full function, the mission team is preparing alternative plans to complete these maneuvers using the propulsion system with its current reduced thrust capability. Lunar Fleshlight will have to perform daily orbit correction maneuvers starting in early February to reach lunar orbit four months from now.

Flying low over the moon’s surface, the briefcase-sized satellite will use a new reflectometer with four near-infrared lasers to illuminate the permanently shadowed craters at the moon’s south pole to detect ground ice. To achieve this goal with the limited amount of propellant it is designed to carry, Lunar Fleshlight will use an energetically efficient near-straight-line halo trajectory that will bring it within 15 km of the Moon’s south pole and 70,000 km of its farthest point.

Lunar Fleshlight, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, is the first interplanetary spacecraft to use a new type of “green” propellant called ASCENT that is safer to transport and store than commonly used propellants such as hydrazine. One of the main goals of the mission is to demonstrate This technology for future use. The propellant was successfully tested on a previous NASA technology demonstration mission in Earth orbit.

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