NASA’s Ongoing Efforts to Reestablish Contact with the Lunar Trailblazer: What’s Next for Lunar Exploration?

AUSTIN, Texas — NASA is still trying to reconnect with the Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft, which launched last week. Unfortunately, communication was lost less than 12 hours after its launch on February 26, as it flew as a secondary payload with the IM-2 lunar lander aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

As of March 4, NASA reported that controllers are working hard to restore communications. Shortly after the loss of signals, the spacecraft turned on its transmitter, but the team still couldn’t get complete telemetry data or send commands to it. Initial assessments pointed to some power system issues when communications were lost.

Before the loss of signal, telemetry data and ground-based radar indicated the spacecraft was spinning slowly and operating in a low-power state. This situation prevented Lunar Trailblazer from making the essential trajectory correction maneuvers (TCMs) needed for a planned flyby of the moon on March 3. This flyby and another planned for May were crucial steps to get the spacecraft into orbit around the moon in July.

Designed by Lockheed Martin and operated by Caltech, Lunar Trailblazer aims to study water on the moon. NASA is now looking into alternative TCM strategies to help get the spacecraft into lunar orbit once communications are restored.

Nicky Fox, NASA’s associate administrator for science, expressed confidence in the team’s efforts, saying they are dedicated to reestablishing contact. She emphasized that missions like Lunar Trailblazer are high-risk but have the potential for great scientific rewards.

This issue with Lunar Trailblazer is part of a broader initiative by NASA called SIMPLEx, which focuses on low-cost planetary science missions. Lunar Trailblazer was picked for development in 2019 alongside two other missions: Janus, which aims to send twin spacecraft to explore binary asteroids, and ESCAPADE, which will send two spacecraft to Mars to investigate how the solar wind interacts with its atmosphere.

ESCAPADE faced delays when its original launch platform was changed, and Janus was ultimately canceled in July 2023 after it became impossible to reach its target asteroids. Meanwhile, the two ESCAPADE spacecraft are now seeking a launch opportunity in 2025 or 2026, aiming for Mars in 2027.

NASA has also picked two cubesat missions as part of SIMPLEx. One, Q-PACE, aimed to test particle aggregation but failed to establish communications after its launch in 2021. The other, LunaH-Map, was supposed to study water ice on the moon but encountered issues with its propulsion system, likely due to extended storage before the launch.

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Lunar Trailblazer,SIMPLEx