Artemis 1 cubesat fails to fire engine as planned during moon flyby

A small NASA moon probe missed a critical manoeuvre on Monday (Nov. 21), but the CubeSat may still be able to save its water-hunting mission.

NASA officials speculated that a blocked valve in the cubesat's propulsion mechanism prevented it from performing an engine firing during its flyby of the moon on Monday.

However, hope is not completely gone. The propulsion system on LunaH-Map does not seem to be malfunctioning, and heating the valve might liberate it, allowing the system to join the others in operation.

The LunaH-Map satellite was one of ten cubesats launched as ride-along payloads on NASA's Artemis 1 mission on Wednesday, November 16.

The purpose of LunaH-Map is to create a map of the hydrogen and, by extension, water ice near the south pole of the moon. Such information is invaluable to the Artemis programme at NASA, which plans to construct a staffed research station in the area.

NASA officials noted in the update that "trajectory options outside of the Earth-moon system may exist to fly near to specific asteroids and characterize their hydrogen composition," suggesting that LunaH-Map might potentially find employment outside the solar system if the present glitch takes much longer to repair.

The Arizona State University-led LunaH-Map isn't the first Artemis 1 cubesat to have issues after being sent into space by the mission's Space Launch System rocket. For instance, the OMOTENASHI probe from Japan had trouble transmitting and hence was unable to place a small lander on the moon's surface.

Both the NASA NEA Scout and the citizen science cubesat Team Miles have remained radio quiet since their launches on November 16. And there may be issues with the LunIR spacecraft as well.

The unmanned Orion spacecraft will travel to lunar orbit and return for over 26 days on the maiden mission of the Artemis programme.

On Friday, the constellation Orion will begin its long, retrograde orbit around Earth's natural satellite (Nov. 25). The capsule will stay in orbit for almost a week before returning to Earth, where it will splash down in the ocean on December 11.

Hopefully, in 2024, Artemis 2 will send people on a circumlunar flight, and in the following year or so, Artemis 3 will land humans near the moon's south pole.

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[alainarchambault]

First leaky pipes and now this. You'd be taking your life in your hands trusting these guys to take you to the moon's south pole.

[SuperTonyony]

We sent people to the Moon decades ago, but we can't even send an unmanned probe now. Meanwhile, a petulant billionaire thinks humans are going to live on Mars.

[darthex]

I've had many fireworks that deployed their parachutes only to have them fail. But that's one expensive sky rocket....

[Awsimilate]

NASA can't seem to get anything right.

[jacklgeiger]

This there is a Lot of junk they are Leaving in Space. !

[yoskarokuto]

Going to the moon for the first time is naturally difficult...😅

[LivingFree]

I think NASA ordered the valves from Amazon. They might want to send a Tesla to the moon instead. 😂

[darryllandry]

All these foul ups tell me one of a couple of things. Either corruption in contractors has gotten so bad they don't even make a pretense of quality anymore or maybe we never went to the moon in the first place as so many "whack jobs" have said. Fail after fail to launch. Then a "red team" has to go out to tighten up some bolts just before liftoff in the middle of the night. Why then? Didn't want us to see if it failed yet again? And we put mannequins on it just to orbit the moon? Really? Why? Not even real astronauts for a ride to capture the data?? And now this. What a supreme clusterbleep. And we did all this with no mannequins in 19 flipping 68? Have we fallen so far or was it all bs? Tell us NASA, enquiring minds want to know.