Two spacecraft launched as rideshares on a lunar lander mission have experienced problems after their deployment. NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer, built by Lockheed Martin, lost contact with controllers four hours after launch due to intermittent power system issues. Contact was restored several hours later.
The 200-kilogram spacecraft is part of a NASA line of small planetary spacecraft missions and will map the amount and form of water on the moon. It has two years of prime mission time once in orbit.
A second spacecraft, Odin, built by asteroid mining startup AstroForge, has been experiencing difficulties communicating with its ground network since deployment. The company believes that the issue may be due to a hardware malfunction or interference at one of their stations, and is planning to send commands early Feb. 28 to turn on a power amplifier for the spacecraft’s transmitter.
The third rideshare spacecraft, Chimera orbital transfer vehicle by Epic Aerospace, was reported as “healthy and power positive” after launch. The IM-2 lander itself, which carried both Lunar Trailblazer and Odin, is in “excellent health” and will perform several trajectory correction maneuvers before arriving at the moon.
The two affected spacecraft are on a low-energy trajectory to the moon, with their first lunar flyby scheduled for March 3. They will make another flyby before going into orbit around the moon in July.
Source: https://spacenews.com/lunar-trailblazer-odin-spacecraft-suffering-problems-after-im-2-launch