Spacetrack Directory Name | LUNAR FLASHLIGHT |
Orbit launches | 2022-12-11 |
Country/organisation of origin | USA (US) |
Starting point | AFETR (Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral, USA) |
Illuminate permanently-shadowed regions and detect water ice absorption bands in the near-infrared. Lasers in 4 different bands illuminate the lunar surface with a 3 degree beam (1Km). Light reflected off the lunar surface enters the spectrometer to distinguish water ices from regolith. Lunar Flashlight underwent a major architecture change in mid-2015rn? The solar sail was unable to provide a stable orbit around the moon due to the perturbations caused by Earthrn? Lunar Flashlight traded designs and architecture for two new elementsrn? Active illumination sourcern? High ?V propulsion systemrn? Reflectometer instrument and regolith water measurements are unchanged
satellite LUNAR FLASHLIGHT Date of exalting 11.12.2022y.