A NASA satellite, the size of a dishwasher, was launched from Florida on Wednesday (Feb. 26) to identify water locations on the moon, especially in permanently shadowed craters at its poles.
The Lunar Trailblazer orbiter lifted off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Built by Lockheed Martin, it was a secondary payload alongside a lunar lander mission led by Intuitive Machines.
Although the lunar surface is often seen as dry, previous measurements have found some water, and significant amounts of ice are hypothesized to exist in cold, shadowed areas.
Weighing about 440 pounds (200 kg) and measuring around 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide with deployed solar panels, the Lunar Trailblazer aims to map this water. It will conduct flybys and orbits to collect high-resolution images, helping to determine the form and abundance of lunar water.
Planetary scientist Bethany Ehlmann remarked on the mysterious presence of water in sunlit areas and highlighted the potential for ice in shadowed regions as critical resources for future lunar missions.
The orbiter will use two instruments: the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) to measure surface temperatures and the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) to detect water indicators.
Understanding lunar water sources, which may include reactions from solar wind and contributions from comets, could reveal insights about water's origin on Earth.
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