A new NASA mission called Lunar Trailblazer is heading to the moon to search for water!
On Wednesday, February 26, a special camera built by scientists at the University of Oxford will launch into space as part of this mission.
The goal is to create a detailed map of water sources on the moon, which could be useful for future human and robotic missions.
Lunar Trailblazer is a small spacecraft, about the size of a washing machine and weighing 200kg. Once it reaches the moon, it will orbit around 100 kilometers above the surface and collect data about temperature and surface composition. It will do this 12 times a day with a resolution of 50 meters.
One of the main areas of interest is the moon’s South Pole, where scientists believe there could be large amounts of frozen water hidden in craters that never see sunlight. Some estimates suggest up to 600 million metric tons of ice could be there!
This water could be purified for drinking, or even turned into oxygen and rocket fuel for future moon missions.
A key instrument on Lunar Trailblazer is the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM), designed and built by researchers at the University of Oxford. This device will measure the temperature of the moon’s surface and analyze minerals to confirm the presence of water. It will work alongside another NASA-built instrument, the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals moon Mapper (HVM3), which will detect water by analyzing light reflected from the surface.
These two instruments will work together to create the most detailed map of water on the moon ever made.
Lunar Trailblazer is part of NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program, which allows small science missions to share a ride with bigger spacecraft. It will be launched as a secondary payload on a lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines.
Since the spacecraft has a small engine, it will take a long route to reach its final orbit. Instead of heading straight to the moon, it will use a method called low-energy transfer. This means it will swing past the moon and into deep space before being pulled back by gravity. Small thruster bursts will then adjust its path until it settles into orbit. The entire journey will take between four and seven months.
Scientists want to understand how water got to the moon in the first place. Was it brought by comets and asteroids? Did it come from volcanic eruptions long ago? Or is it formed by reactions between solar wind and the moon’s surface? Lunar Trailblazer’s data will help answer these questions.
Lauren Taylor from the UK Space Agency said, “This mission will provide valuable information about the moon’s water, supporting future human exploration.”
The first images from the LTM are expected to arrive on Earth within three days of launch. This exciting mission will bring us closer to understanding the moon’s history and potential for future exploration!
Source: University of Oxford.
