Lunar Flashlight

Lunar Flashlight
Lunar Flashlight nanosatellite
Mission typeLunar orbiter
OperatorNASA
COSPAR ID2022-168B Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.54697Edit this on Wikidata
Websitewww.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/lunar_flashlight.php
Mission durationIn Orbit: 1 year, 11 months and 15 days
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftLunar Flashlight
Spacecraft typeCubeSat
Bus6U CubeSat[1]
ManufacturerJet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Launch mass>14 kg
Start of mission
Launch date11 December 2022, 07:38:23 UTC
RocketFalcon 9 Block 5
Launch siteCape Canaveral Space Force Station SLC-40
ContractorSpaceX
End of mission
DisposalDecommissioned
Last contactMay 2023
Orbital parameters
Reference systemHeliocentric
Transponders
BandX-band
Capacity>10 kbps [2]

Lunar Flashlight was a low-cost CubeSat lunar orbiter mission to explore, locate, and estimate size and composition of water ice deposits on the Moon for future exploitation by robots or humans.[1][3][2][4][5][6]

The spacecraft, of the 6U CubeSat format, was developed by a team from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.[4] It was selected in early 2015 by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) for launch in 2022 as a secondary payload for the Artemis 1 mission, though it missed the integration window to be included on the mission.[7] Lunar Flashlight was remanifested to launch as a rideshare with the Hakuto-R Mission 1 on a Falcon 9 Block 5. The launch took place on 11 December 2022.[8]

A failure of the craft's propulsion system resulted in Lunar Flashlight being unable to enter orbit around the Moon and NASA terminated the mission on May 12, 2023.[9][10] The spacecraft has since been abandoned in a solar orbit after flying by Earth on May 17 for a coincidental gravity assist.

  1. ^ a b "Lunar Flashlight Mission Information". JPL (NASA). April 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ^ a b Hayne, P. O.; Cohen, B. A.; B. T., B. T. (21 March 2016). Lunar Flashlight: Illuminating the Moon's South Pole. 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Retrieved 11 March 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ^ Cohen, Barbara A. (2013). Lunar Flashlight: Mapping lunar surface volatiles using a CubeSat (PDF). Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (2013). NASA. Retrieved 11 March 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. ^ a b "NASA TechPort: Lunar Flashlight Project". NASA TechPort. NASA. 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ^ "Lunar Flashlight". Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). NASA. 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  6. ^ Wall, Mike (9 October 2014). "NASA Is Studying How to Mine the Moon for Water". SPACE.com. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  7. ^ Ohana, Lavie (3 October 2021). "Four Artemis I CubeSats miss their ride". Space Scout. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  8. ^ Rosenstein, Sawyer (11 December 2022). "SpaceX launches Falcon 9 carrying private Japanese moon lander". NASASpaceFlight. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  9. ^ Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "NASA Calls End to Lunar Flashlight After Some Tech Successes". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  10. ^ Foust, Jeff (9 August 2023). "Clogged propellant lines doomed NASA lunar cubesat mission". SpaceNews. Retrieved 10 August 2023.