NASA announced it was discontinuing operations of the LunaH-Map cubesat on the Artemis 1 lunar journey mission. Operations were suspended in May, due to a stuck valve in the cubesat propulsion system. Photos/NASA
WASHINGTON – NASA announced discontinuing operations of the LunaH-Map cubesat on its lunar journey mission Artemis 1 . Operations were suspended in May, when a valve jammed on the cubesat propulsion system stranding the small satellite in the wrong orbit.
NASA stated that the LunaH-Map cubesat, has succeeded in achieving one of its main mission objectives by demonstrating outstanding performance on its main instruments. “The cubesat neutron spectrometer can detect water and ice on the surface of the moon,” NASA said as quoted by SINDOnews from the Space page, Tuesday (8/8/2023).
The spacecraft’s version of the spectrometer will fly on another NASA mission, called Lunar-VISE or Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer. It’s part of the payload that will fly to the lunar surface on future missions under NASA’s Lunar Payload Commercial Services program which funds landers, rovers and private science on the surface.
LunaH-Map is part of a group of cubes launching with Artemis 1 in November 2022. The mission is led by Craig Hardgrove at Arizona State University. “We’ve said goodbye to our little spacecraft,” said Hardgrove.
The larger Artemis 1 mission fulfilled all of its main goals, including flying the Orion spacecraft around the moon and sending it safely to Earth.
NASA is hard at work on the second mission in the series, Artemis 2, now expected to launch four astronauts around the moon no sooner than 2024. Artemis 3, the moon landing mission, could follow in 2025 or 2026 if everything is on schedule.
(wib)
2023-08-08 09:49:00
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