A small craft is about to head out to shine a light on water ice at the south pole of the moon.
The Hakuto-R Mission to the Moon will share a ride with the lunar Flashlight when it launches on December 1.
There could be water ice in the permanently shadowed areas near the Moon's south pole.
"If we are going to have humans on the Moon, they will need water for drinking, breathing, and rocket fuel," said Barbara Cohen, a principal investigator. It costs less to live off the land than it does to bring water with you.
Water ice has been found at the Moon's poles by several missions. There are many lines of evidence for the permanently shadowed regions of the moon.
Cohen told Universe Today that the amount of ice that can be found within the craters or embedded in the regolith could be used to extract water from the moon.
There is only one instrument that illuminates permanently shadowed regions in polar craters. The light reflected back from the lunar surface will allow the spacecraft to detect water ice absorption bands in the nearIR.
Cohen said that if water ice there, we'll get less photons back than we sent.
A map of surficial ice concentration can be created by repeating these measurements over multiple points. Cohen said the data they get can be correlated with previous missions to help guide future rovers and humans.
Cohen said having a small footprint was a challenge in constructing the small craft.
You have to shrink a lot of things down if you have a 14-kilogram space craft. You have to get innovative about what you include and what you don't. We didn't have enough room for more instruments so we only had one. It is the first time that active lasers will be used at the Moon.
There isn't room for a lot of batteries in the spaceship so they had to make it very low power.
Cohen said that the lasers have the same intensity as a laser. We need to be very close to the moon.
Even a full size satellite with a lot of fuel wouldn't be easy to maintain at a low altitude. The microwave-oven-sized CAPSTONE is conducting tests to make sure that this unique lunar circle is stable. There is a proposal for the NASA's future lunar gateway. At its closest approach, the satellite will come within 15 km of the moon's South Pole.
Cohen said that her team is keeping an eye on how things are going for CAPSTONE, as they are able to come very close to the surface when they want to make the measurement.
Depending on the amount of fuel they have, the lunar flashlight will get 10 passes of the moon.
Cohen said that the mission depends on fuel. The second stage of the rocket will hold Lunar Flashlight. When we are ejected, we need to use fuel in order to get to the correct location. We don't have a lot of margin with a small tank.
The first use of a laser reflectometer to look for water ice is one of the technological firsts being tested by the lunar Flashlight.
The "mission control" for the spaceship is located at Georgia Tech and will be staffed by a group of 14 operators.
The students wrote all of the script for the uplink and downlink and are in control of the spaceship. It has been gratifying to see the level of student involvement and they will know the ins and out of operating a spaceship. Those students are going to have great careers.
There have been a few delays leading up to the launch of Lunar Flashlight and Japan's Hakuto-R Mission, but the launch time is now set for Thursday, December 1. There is a space force station in Florida
The Georgia Tech website has more information on the mission.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
