NASA has launched the Lunar Trailblazer, a compact satellite designed to map and analyze water on the Moon’s surface, particularly in its permanently shadowed craters.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, carrying the 200-kg Lunar Trailblazer alongside a lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines. Built by Lockheed Martin, the satellite will orbit at approximately 100 km above the Moon, using advanced instruments to locate and study water deposits.
Scientists believe that water on the Moon, possibly stored as ice in craters or locked within lunar dust, could be crucial for future lunar exploration. It may serve as a resource for astronauts, providing drinking water, breathable oxygen, and even hydrogen fuel for rockets.
Lunar Trailblazer will perform multiple flybys before settling into orbit, where it will map the Moon’s surface and measure water abundance. The mission’s two instruments the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) and the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) will work together to analyze temperature variations and detect water signatures.
While tiny amounts of water have been found on sunlit lunar regions, scientists are particularly interested in the potentially large ice deposits at the Moon’s poles. The mission could also shed light on the origin of lunar water, offering insights into how water may have arrived on Earth.