NASA has withdrawn its Lunar Flashlight project, which was designed to search for ice sources on the moon. The agency has spent the past few months trying to get the small satellite to its destination, but without success.
The Lunar Flashlight mission was first launched in December and was developed by Georgia Tech students. Once launched, it was expected to begin a four-month journey to the moon, after which it would begin searching for surface water ice at the perpetually dark moon’s south pole.
Unfortunately, the vehicle will pass through Earth and then fly into orbit. According to Barbara Cohen, the principal investigator at the Goddard Space Flight Center, despite being disappointing, the mission proved the effectiveness of many of the tools that were used for the first time on the satellite.
