NASA freezes ice-hunting cubesat Moon mission for good after thruster fail

NASA has given up searching for ice hidden inside craters on the surface of the Moon's South Pole - for now - after the Lunar Flashlight cubesat carrying out the mission failed to generate enough thrust to reach its intended orbit. Launched in December, the briefcase-sized spacecraft was designed to enter a near-rectilinear …

[lglethal]

Space is hard!

Always a shame when a mission fails, but still good that a number of the experimental tech got some good experience. That will be useful for future missions.

Here's hoping they can do something with it whilst it's flying around in Space out there...

[Pascal Monett]

"a type of propulsion system that had not previously flown beyond Earth's orbit"

Well, there has to be a first time, and first times are rarely successful.

So try, try again.

[PeterM42]

Well, after all......

.....it IS Rocket Science!

[IglooDame]

I can't imagine a use for a flashlight near the sun, but then again I'm not a NASA scientist or engineer and I do expect they'll come up with something clever.

[Anonymous Coward]

Will you look at that!

Yah, well, if they start claiming they have found water in the shadows on the sun, I'm'a gonna wonder who driving that rig,

[Spherical Cow]

Re: Will you look at that!

They'll get their best results at night time, obviously.