Overview

• NASA lost two-way communications with the Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft a day after its Feb. 26 launch and officially ended the mission on July 31
• Telemetry indicated misaligned solar arrays prevented proper power generation which depleted the probe’s batteries and cut its communications
• Teams around the world tracked the spacecraft’s spin and trajectory but its signal became too weak as it drifted beyond the Moon into deep space
• The small satellite carried JPL’s High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper and Oxford’s Lunar Thermal Mapper to characterize lunar water distribution and temperature variations
• JPL’s spectrometer design has been selected for the Ultra Compact Imaging Spectrometer for the Moon, ensuring Trailblazer’s technology informs future lunar exploration