After months of trying to salvage its lunar cubesat, NASA called an end to its water-hunting mission.
to get it on its modified track. NASA engineers have been trying to clear suspected obstructions in the thruster fuel lines, enabling the spacecraft to produce adequate thrust for carrying out monthly flybys of the Moon’s south polar region.
There was a brief glimmer of hope earlier this month, with one of the thrusters showing some improvement. Ultimately, however, the cubesat failed to generate enough thrust to get into lunar orbit.Lunar Flashlight’s miniaturized propulsion system was the first of its kind to be flown beyond Earth’s orbit as a demonstration of the new technology.
In that sense, the mission wasn’t a complete failure, although it is still disappointing that the cubesat couldn’t shine its infrared flashlight on the Moon’s possible hidden reservoirs of ice water.
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