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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer approaches the Moon as it enters its science orbit in this artist’s concept. The small satellite will orbit about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the lunar surface, producing the best-yet maps of water on the Moon.Lockheed Martin Space NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft gets covered in anti-static wrap before being shipped from Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it arrived on Jan. 29.Lockheed Martin Space Before arriving at the Moon, the small satellite mission will use the gravity of the Sun, Earth, and Moon over several months to gradually line up for capture into lunar orbit.
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer arrived in Florida recently in advance of its launch later this month and has been integrated with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Shipped from Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, the small satellite is riding along on Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 launch — part of NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative — which is slated for no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 26, from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center.
Approximately 48 minutes after launch, Lunar Trailblazer will separate from the rocket and begin its independent flight to the Moon. The small satellite will discover where the Moon’s water is, what form it is in, and how it changes over time, producing the best-yet maps of water on the lunar surface. Observations gathered during its two-year prime mission will contribute to the understanding of water cycles on airless bodies throughout the solar system while also supporting future human and robotic missions to the Moon by identifying where water is located.
Key to achieving these goals are the spacecraft’s two state-of-the-art science instruments: the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) infrared spectrometer and the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) infrared multispectral imager. The HVM3 instrument was provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and LTM was built by the University of Oxford and funded by the UK Space Agency.
Lunar Trailblazer’s voyage to the Moon will take between four and seven months, de-pending on the day it launches. This orbital diagram shows the low-energy transfer trajectory of the NASA mission should it launch on Feb. 26, the earliest date in its launch period.NASA/JPL-Caltech “The small team is international in scope, which is more typical of larger projects,” said Andy Klesh, Lunar Trailblazer’s project systems engineer at JPL. “And unlike the norm for small missions that may only have a very focused, singular purpose, Lunar Trailblazer has two high-fidelity instruments onboard. We are really punching above our weight.”
Intricate Navigation
Before it can use these instruments to collect science data, Lunar Trailblazer will for several months perform a series of Moon flybys, thruster bursts, and looping orbits. These highly choreographed maneuvers will eventually position the spacecraft so it can map the surface in great detail.
Weighing only 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and measuring 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide when its solar panels are fully deployed, Lunar Trailblazer is about the size of a dishwasher and has a relatively small engine. To make its four-to-seven-month trip to the Moon (depending on the launch date) as efficient as possible, the mission’s design and navigation team has planned a trajectory that will use the gravity of the Sun, Earth, and Moon to guide the spacecraft — a technique called low-energy transfer.
“The initial boost provided by the rocket will send the spacecraft past the Moon and into deep space, and its trajectory will then be naturally reshaped by gravity after several lunar flybys and loops around Earth. This will allow it to be captured into lunar orbit with minimal propulsion needs,” said Gregory Lantoine, Lunar Trailblazer’s mission design and navigation lead at JPL. “It’s the most fuel-efficient way to get to where we need to go.”
As it flies past the Moon several times, the spacecraft will use small thruster bursts — aka trajectory correction maneuvers — to slowly change its orbit from highly elliptical to circular, bringing the satellite down to an altitude of about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the Moon’s surface.
Arriving at the Moon
Once in its science orbit, Lunar Trailblazer will glide over the Moon’s surface, making 12 orbits a day and observing the surface at a variety of different times of day over the course of the mission. The satellite will also be perfectly placed to peer into the permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s South Pole, which harbor cold traps that never see direct sunlight. If Lunar Trailblazer finds significant quantities of ice at the base of the craters, those locations could be pinpointed as a resource for future lunar explorers.
The data the mission collects will be transmitted to NASA’s Deep Space Network and delivered to Lunar Trailblazer’s new operations center at Caltech’s IPAC in Pasadena, California. Working alongside the mission’s experienced team will be students from Caltech and nearby Pasadena City College who are involved in all aspects of the mission, from operations and communications to developing software.
Lunar Trailblazer was a selection of NASA’s SIMPLEx (Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration), which provides opportunities for low-cost science spacecraft to ride-share with selected primary missions. To maintain the lower overall cost, SIMPLEx missions have a higher risk posture and lighter requirements for oversight and management. This higher risk acceptance allows NASA to test pioneering technologies, and the definition of success for these missions includes the lessons learned from more experimental endeavors.
“We are a small mission with groundbreaking science goals, so we will succeed by embracing the flexibility that’s built into our organization,” said Lee Bennett, Lunar Trailblazer operations lead with IPAC. “Our international team consists of seasoned engineers, science team members from several institutions, and local students who are being given the opportunity to work on a NASA mission for the first time.”
More About Lunar Trailblazer
Lunar Trailblazer is led by Principal Investigator Bethany Ehlmann of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Caltech also leads the mission’s science investigation and mission operations. This includes planning, scheduling, and sequencing of all science, instrument, and spacecraft activities during the nominal mission. Science data processing will be done in the Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization at Caltech. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California manages Lunar Trailblazer and provides system engineering, mission assurance, the HVM3 instrument, and mission design and navigation. Lockheed Martin Space provides the spacecraft, integrates the flight system, and supports operations under contract with Caltech. University of Oxford developed and provided the LTM instrument. Part of NASA’s Lunar Discovery Exploration Program, the mission is managed by NASA’s Planetary Mission Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information about Lunar Trailblazer, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/lunar-trailblazer
How NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Could Decipher the Moon’s Icy Secrets NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Gets Final Payload for Moon Water Hunt Moon Water Imager Integrated With NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer News Media Contacts
Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
Isabel Swafford
Caltech IPAC
626-216-4257
iswafford@ipac.caltech.edu
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Last Updated Feb 13, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
Modular Assembled Radiators for Nuclear Electric Propulsion Vehicles, or MARVL, aims to take a critical element of nuclear electric propulsion, its heat dissipation system, and divide it into smaller components that can be assembled robotically and autonomously in space. This is an artist’s rendering of what the fully assembled system might look like.NASA The trip to Mars and back is not one for the faint of heart. We’re not talking days, weeks, or months. But there are technologies that could help transport a crew on that round-trip journey in a relatively quick two years.
One option NASA is exploring is nuclear electric propulsion, which employs a nuclear reactor to generate electricity that ionizes, or positively charges, and electrically accelerates gaseous propellants to provide thrust to a spacecraft.
Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, are working on a system that could help bring nuclear electric propulsion one significant, technology-defining step closer to reality.
Modular Assembled Radiators for Nuclear Electric Propulsion Vehicles, or MARVL, aims to take a critical element of nuclear electric propulsion, its heat dissipation system, and divide it into smaller components that can be assembled robotically and autonomously in space.
“By doing that, we eliminate trying to fit the whole system into one rocket fairing,” said Amanda Stark, a heat transfer engineer at NASA Langley and the principal investigator for MARVL. “In turn, that allows us to loosen up the design a little bit and really optimize it.”
Loosening up the design is key, because as Stark mentioned, previous ideas called for fitting the entire nuclear electric radiator system under a rocket fairing, or nose cone, which covers and protects a payload. Fully deployed, the heat dissipating radiator array would be roughly the size of a football field. You can imagine the challenge engineers would face in getting such a massive system folded up neatly inside the tip of a rocket.
The MARVL technology opens a world of possibilities. Rather than cram the whole system into an existing rocket, this would allow researchers the flexibility to send pieces of the system to space in whatever way would make the most sense, then have it all assembled off the planet.
Once in space, robots would connect the nuclear electric propulsion system’s radiator panels, through which a liquid metal coolant, such as a sodium-potassium alloy, would flow.
While this is still an engineering challenge, it is exactly the kind of engineering challenge in-space-assembly experts at NASA Langley have been working on for decades. The MARVL technology could mark a significant first milestone. Rather than being an add-on to an existing technology, the in-space assembly component will benefit and influence the design of the very spacecraft it would serve.
“Existing vehicles have not previously considered in-space assembly during the design process, so we have the opportunity here to say, ‘We’re going to build this vehicle in space. How do we do it? And what does the vehicle look like if we do that?’ I think it’s going to expand what we think of when it comes to nuclear propulsion,” said Julia Cline, a mentor for the project in NASA Langley’s Research Directorate, who led the center’s participation in the Nuclear Electric Propulsion tech maturation plan development as a precursor to MARVL. That tech maturation plan was run out of the agency’s Space Nuclear Propulsion project at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate awarded the MARVL project through the Early Career Initiative, giving the team two years to advance the concept. Stark and her teammates are working with an external partner, Boyd Lancaster, Inc., to develop the thermal management system. The team also includes radiator design engineers from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and fluid engineers from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After two years, the team hopes to move the MARVL design to a small-scale ground demonstration.
The idea of robotically building a nuclear propulsion system in space is sparking imaginations.
“One of our mentors remarked, ‘This is why I wanted to work at NASA, for projects like this,’” said Stark, “which is awesome because I am so happy to be involved with it, and I feel the same way.”
Additional support for MARVL comes from the agency’s Space Nuclear Propulsion project. The project’s ongoing effort is maturing technologies for operations around the Moon and near-Earth exploration, deep space science missions, and human exploration using nuclear electric propulsion and nuclear thermal propulsion.
An artist’s rendering that shows the different components of a fully assembled nuclear electric propulsion system.NASAView the full article
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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The Milky Way pictured from the International Space Station in a long-duration photographCredits: NASA NASA and its commercial partners continue to drive innovation in space exploration, achieving milestones that will ultimately benefit human spaceflight and commercial low Earth orbit efforts. These recent achievements from NASA’s industry partners include completed safety milestones, successful flight tests, and major technological advancements.
“Our commercial partners’ growing capabilities in low Earth orbit underscore NASA’s commitment to advance scientific discovery, pioneering space technology, and support future deep space exploration,” said Angela Hart, manager of the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
As NASA expands opportunities in low Earth orbit, the agency is working with seven U.S. companies to meet future commercial and government needs through the second Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities initiative.
The first and second stages of Blue Origin’s New Glenn test vehicle pictured at the company’s orbital launch vehicle factory in Cape Canaveral, FloridaCredits: Blue Origin Blue Origin
Blue Origin continues to make progress in the development of an integrated commercial space transportation capability that ensures safe, affordable, and high-frequency U.S. access to orbit for crew and other missions.
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft pictured approaching the International Space StationCredits: NASA Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman is evolving the company’s Cygnus spacecraft as a foundational logistics and research platform to support NASA’s next generation of low Earth orbit ventures. The company recently completed a project management review with NASA, presenting the roadmap and enhancements to commercialize the spacecraft. Northrop Grumman also continues to make progress toward the implementation of docking capability through a partnership with Starlab Space.
Sierra Space’s LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) habitat following a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.Credits: Sierra Space Sierra Space
Sierra Space recently completed two full-scale ultimate burst pressure tests of its LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) habitat structure, an element of a NASA-funded commercial space station for new destinations in low Earth orbit. The company also has selected and tested materials for the habitat’s air barrier, focusing on permeability and flammability testing to meet the recommended safety standards. The inflatable habitat is designed to expand in orbit, creating a versatile living and working area for astronauts with a flexible, durable structure that allows for compact launch and significant expansion upon deployment.
Sierra Space also has advanced in high velocity impact testing and micro-meteoroid and orbital debris configuration and material selection, crucial for ensuring the safety and durability of the company’s space structures, along with advancing radiator designs to optimize thermal management for long-duration missions.
The SpaceX Starship spacecraft, a fully reusable transportation, ahead of a test flight at the company’s Starbase facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.Credits: SpaceX SpaceX
SpaceX continues developing the company’s Starship spacecraft, a fully reusable transportation system designed for missions to low Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. SpaceX completed multiple flight tests, launching the spacecraft on the Super Heavy, the launch system’s booster, from the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. During the tests, SpaceX demonstrated key capabilities needed for the system’s reusability, including landing burns and reentry from hypersonic velocities.
SpaceX is preparing to launch newer generations of the Starship system, powered by upgraded versions of its reusable methane-oxygen staged-combustion Raptor engines, as it works to operationalize the system ahead of the first crewed lunar landing missions under the agency’s Artemis campaign.
An engineer for Special Aerospace Services tests the company’s Autonomous Maneuvering UnitCredits: Special Aerospace Services Special Aerospace Services
Special Aerospace Services is developing an Autonomous Maneuvering Unit that incorporates in-space servicing, propulsion, and robotic technologies. The company is evaluating customer needs and establishing the details and features for the initial flight unit. Special Aerospace Services also is working on a prototype unit at its Special Projects Research Facility in Arvada, Colorado, and has started construction of a new campus and final assembly facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The application of these technologies is intended for the safer assembly of commercial destinations, servicing, retrieval, and inspection of in-space systems.
Two twin containers hosting the welding experiment developed by ThinkOrbital, validated by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency),Credits: ThinkOrbital ThinkOrbital
ThinkOrbital recently demonstrated autonomous welding in space, validated by NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). The company will further test in-space welding, cutting, and X-ray inspection technologies on another mission later this year. ThinkOrbital’s third mission, scheduled for late 2025, will focus on developing commercially viable products, including a robotic arm with advanced end-effector solutions and standalone X-ray inspection capabilities. In-space welding technologies could enable building larger structures for future commercial space stations.
The qualification primary structure of Vast’s Haven-1 commercial space station during final welding stages at the company’s headquarters in Long Beach, California Credits: Vast Vast
Vast continues development progress on the Haven-1 commercial space station, targeted to launch in 2025. The company recently completed several technical milestones, including fabricating key components such as the primary structure pathfinder, hatch, battery module, and control moment gyroscope.
Vast also completed a solar array deployment test and the station’s preliminary design review with NASA’s support. While collaborating with the agency on developing and testing the commercial station’s dome-shaped window, Vast performed rigorous pressure testing to meet safety requirements.
In addition to these efforts, NASA also is collaborating with two businesses through its Small Business Innovation Research Ignite initiative, which focuses on commercially viable technology ideas aligned with the agency’s mission needs. Both companies are developing technologies for potential use on the International Space Station and future commercial space stations.
A ceramic heat shield, or thermal protection system, being developed by Canopy Aerospace Credits: Canopy Aerospace Canopy Aerospace
Canopy Aerospace is developing a new manufacturing system aimed at improving the production of ceramic heat shields, also known as thermal protection systems. The company recently validated the material properties of a low-density ceramic insulator using an alumina-enhanced thermal barrier formulation.
Canopy Aerospace also continues development of a 3D-printed, low-density ablator designed to provide thermal protection during extreme heating. The company also worked on other 3D-printed materials, such as aluminum nitride and oxide ceramic products, which could be useful in various applications across the energy, space, aerospace, and industrial sectors, including electromagnetic thrusters for satellites. Canopy Aerospace also developed standard layups of fiber-reinforced composites and integrated cork onto composite panels.
The Cargo Ferry, a reusable cargo transportation vehicle, prototype during a recent high-altitude flight test to test its recovery system and range capabilities.Credits: Outpost Technologies Outpost Technologies
Outpost Technologies completed a high-altitude flight test of its Cargo Ferry, a reusable cargo transportation vehicle. The company dropped a full-scale prototype from 82,000 feet via weather balloon to test its recovery system and range capabilities. The key innovation is a robotic paraglider that guides the vehicle to a precise landing. The paraglider deployed at a record-setting altitude of 65,000 feet, marking the highest flight ever for such a system.
During the test, the vehicle autonomously flew 165 miles before it was safely recovered at the landing site, demonstrating the system’s reliability. The company’s low-mass re-entry system can protect payload mass and volume for future space cargo return missions and point-to-point delivery.
NASA’s low Earth orbit microgravity strategy builds on the agency’s extensive human spaceflight experience to advance future scientific and exploration goals. As the International Space Station nears the end of operations, NASA plans to transition to a new low Earth orbit model to continue leveraging microgravity benefits. Through commercial partnerships, NASA aims to maintain its leadership in microgravity research and ensure continued benefits for humanity.
Learn more about NASA’s low Earth orbit microgravity strategy at:
https://www.nasa.gov/leomicrogravitystrategy
News Media Contacts
Claire O’Shea
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
claire.a.o’shea@nasa.gov
Anna Schneider
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
anna.c.schneider@nasa.gov
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
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