P060-02
Lunar Trailblazer: A Pioneering Small Satellite for Lunar Water and Lunar Geology
Monday, 14 December 2020: 16:04
Virtual
Bethany L Ehlmann1, Rachel L Klima2, C. Lee Bennett3, Diana L Blaney4, Neil E Bowles5, Simon B Calcutt5, James L Dickson6, Kerri Donaldson Hanna7, Christopher S Edwards8, Rory Evans5, Emily Felder9, Robert O Green10, Martha House11, Chris Howe12, Andrew Klesh13, Jasper Kenzo Miura14, Carle M Pieters14, Elena Scire6, Calina Seybold15, Katherine Shirley5, David R Thompson10, Kristian Waldorff16, Tristram Warren17, Walton Williamson13 and Joshua Wood16, (1)California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)JHU Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD, United States, (3)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (5)University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, (6)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, (7)University of Central Florida, Orlando, United States, (8)Northern Arizona University, Astronomy and Planetary Science, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (9)Pasadena City College, Pasadena, United States, (10)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (11)Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA, United States, (12)Science and Technology Facilities Council, RAL Space, Didcot, United Kingdom, (13)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (14)Brown University, Providence, RI, United States, (15)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, (16)Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, United States, (17)Oxford University, Physics, Oxford, United Kingdom
Abstract:
Lunar Trailblazer is a NASA SIMPLEx small satellite science mission for understanding the Moon’s water and water cycle. Selected in June 2019, the ESPA Grande Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft will be delivered in fall 2022. Trailblazer is one of the secondary payloads manifested for the 2024 IMAP heliophysics mission rideshare opportunity. Lunar Trailblazer’s international team is led by Caltech and managed by JPL. A Lockheed Martin developed and built Lunar Trailblazer smallsat carries two instruments: (1) JPL’s High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM
3) shortwave infrared imaging spectrometer (100 m/pixel, 0.6 – 3.6 μm, 10 nm spectral resolution) and (2) the UK-contributed, University of Oxford/STFC RAL Space-built Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) infrared multispectral imager (<50 m/pixel, 4 broadband thermal channels 6-100 μm, 11 compositional channels 7-10 μm). Trailblazer simultaneously measures composition, temperature, and thermophysical properties from a 100+/-30 km lunar polar orbit at high spatial and spectral resolution over select areas of the lunar surface.
Lunar Trailblazer’s science objectives are to detect and map water on the lunar surface at key targets to (1) determine its form (OH, H2O or ice), abundance, and local distribution as a function of latitude, soil maturity, and lithology on the sunlit Moon; (2) assess possible time-variation in lunar water on sunlit surfaces; and (3) use terrain-scattered light to determine the form, abundance, and distribution of exposed water in permanently shadowed regions. With simultaneous nested infrared spectral images and temperature data, Trailblazer also (4) collects thermal data to understand how local gradients in albedo and surface temperature affect ice and OH/H2O concentration, including the potential identification of new, small cold traps. While achieving these objectives, Trailblazer will also attain improved compositional mapping of silicates and improved reconnaissance of potential future landing zones for water resources, thermophysical properties, and composition.
Identification and characterization of water and its forms is critical knowledge as lunar exploration moves forward. This presentation will describe the mission-level design and measurement techniques to characterize the Moon’s water and geology.
