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Not much bigger than a shoe box, the Lunar IceCube will use a spectrometer to scout for frozen water on and beneath the surface as it orbits above the Moon.
Water ice could provide a useful source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket propellant, enabling human voyages further out into the Solar System. Oxygen, and water itself, could also sustain astronauts living in lunar bases.
The satellite is ready to launch after being loaded into the Space Launch System (SLS), which will be travelling to the Moon for the uncrewed Artemis I mission later this year.
Once deployed into lunar orbit, the IceCube will use miniature electric thrusters for propulsion and rely on ‘gravity assists’ from Earth and the Moon as it investigates the absorption and release of water from regolith, a fine soil which forms most of the surface. NASA aims to map the changes as they occur during the mission, which could last up to six months.
The 14kg craft will also study the exosphere, a very thin atmosphere-like volume surrounding the Moon. By understanding the dynamics of water and other substances on the Moon, scientists aim to predict seasonal changes of lunar ice that could affect its use as a resource in the future.
The satellite was developed by Morehead State University in Kentucky, Busek Space Propulsion and Systems of Massachusetts, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, JPL, and NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in Fairmont, West Virginia.
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