{"id":9908,"date":"2025-02-28T20:18:19","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T12:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-lunar-trailblazer-astroforges-odin-face-post-deployment-challenges\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T20:18:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T12:18:19","slug":"nasas-lunar-trailblazer-astroforges-odin-face-post-deployment-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-lunar-trailblazer-astroforges-odin-face-post-deployment-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Lunar Trailblazer, AstroForge\u2019s Odin face post-deployment challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_68814\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68814\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68814\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_IM-2_encapsulation_small.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_IM-2_encapsulation_small.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_IM-2_encapsulation_small-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_IM-2_encapsulation_small-678x452.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_IM-2_encapsulation_small-768x512.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C lander, named Athena, is prepared for encapsulation inside SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairings. Beneath the lander are rideshare payloads from Epic Aerospace (front), AstroForge (right), and NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (behind). Image: SpaceX via Intuitive Machines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Two spacecraft that launched as rideshare payloads on Intuitive Machines\u2019 IM-2 mission are dealing with post-deployment challenges that might put the missions in jeopardy.<\/p>\n<p>The Lunar Trailblazer, a Moon-bound spacecraft managed by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Odin, a spacecraft from AstroForge aiming for an asteroid flyby, have both encountered communication issues that are being troubleshooted.<\/p>\n<p>Odin, a 120 kg (265 lb) satellite, was the first of the three rideshare payloads that deployed from the Falcon 9\u2019s upper stage. It began its solo journey roughy 47 minutes and 34 seconds after liftoff on Wednesday, Feb. 26.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the launch of Odin, AstroForge began a live stream of its mission control center along with available trajectory and signal data from the various ground stations tracking the spacecraft. The company said it wanted to push back against what it views as a space industry that is \u201cfull of secret, closed-door decisions, where the public only sees the results.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1895404348236300504&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceflightnow.com%2F2025%2F02%2F28%2Fnasas-lunar-trailblazer-astroforges-odin-face-post-deployment-challenges%2F&amp;sessionId=84e3260033685951919637c1cc92b86d1d9f440b&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1895404348236300504\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782462335818462597=\"true\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Short recap on the status of the mission before we started our complex operations tonight. We have already learned a massive amount from this mission, and tonight, we get the chance to learn a little more. pic.twitter.com\/HmQVd9RXuP<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 AstroForge (@astroforge) February 28, 2025<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>During the stream on Thursday evening, AstroForge CEO Matt Gialich gave a six-minute-long update on the status of Odin. He stated that the spacecraft appeared to be power-positive by the fact that mission control has had intermittent communication with it.<\/p>\n<p>He said that uplinks are also apparently working and the spacecraft does appear to be in deep space, stating that flight controllers \u201cnoticed in the downlink analysis that we are uplinking at the same time, so signal is getting to the spacecraft when we get our downlinks from the spacecraft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, he also noted that there are lingering questions regarding the attitude, or positioning, of the spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have kind of two possibilities. Possibility number one is everything is fine and all of our issues are on the ground,\u201d Gialich said. \u201cPossibility number two is that we\u2019re in a slow, uncontrolled tumble.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68845\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68845\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68845\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Solar_Testing.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Solar_Testing.jpeg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Solar_Testing-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Solar_Testing-678x452.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Solar_Testing-768x512.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68845\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taking advantage of the natural sunlight from the loading bays at AstroForge\u2019s facility in Seal Beach, California, the team tests Odin\u2019s solar arrays that will power the vehicle after deployment. Image: AstroForge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He said that theory number one is the most likely at this juncture and pointed to the fact that the team has \u201cdealt with a shit load of ground issues\u201d during the first full day of the mission.<\/p>\n<p>He said the first ground station that was supposed to pick up communications with Odin made a lot of mistakes, which prevented communications with Odin until about an hour after separating from the Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, he said prior to launch a power amplifier at one of the ground stations, one of their \u201cmajor communications points,\u201d broke and prevented them from sending signal from that site, though they could still receive downlinks there. Another ground station had interference from a cell phone antenna that was installed nearby about a week before launch.<\/p>\n<p>In a comment within the stream\u2019s live chat on YouTube on Friday, Gialich said that the team was \u201ccurrently not in a commanding mode\u201d for the spacecraft and would try sending another command attempt \u201con the next pass of India at 4:20 p.m. PST (7:20 p.m. EST, 0020 UTC)\u201d on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>What comes next is to try and send a command to the flight computer on Odin to turn on the power amplifier. Barring that, they will try and communicate with the radio onboard. They are also progressing towards what Gialich called a \u201ccontingency burn\u201d about 6.5 days into the mission, which will try to align Odin with its target asteroid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause we are so close on ephemeris, there is a non-zero chance that it will actually put us on a course to the asteroid. The challenge here becomes if there is anything in the predicted error margins here, it\u2019s really hard to track the spacecraft,\u201d Gialich said. \u201cThe spacecraft is very far from Earth at this point and to try and point one of these high-gain, thin-beam width antennas at the spacecraft and get it right is going to be really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68846\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68846\" style=\"width: 851px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68846\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Testing_Prep.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"851\" height=\"876\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Testing_Prep.jpeg 851w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Testing_Prep-291x300.jpeg 291w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Testing_Prep-678x698.jpeg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250228_Odin_Testing_Prep-768x791.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 851px) 100vw, 851px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68846\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Team member Wesley Tunelius conducting last minute checks on Odin before the final vibration testing begins. Image: AstroForge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This is the second mission for AstroForge and its first attempt to perform a flyby of an asteroid. The target is designated \u201c2022 OB5\u201d and is believed to be a metal-rich M-class asteroid.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the launch, Gialich spoke with Spaceflight Now and explained the importance of keying into an asteroid, like 2022 OB5, as a future prospect for mining.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis particular class of asteroid is very important because these metal asteroids, we believe, are going to be very, very high in the concentration of what are called the \u2018platinum-group metals.\u2019 And at the end of the day, we\u2019re a mining company that needs to be able to sell material,\u201d Gialich said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to be able to sell material on Earth, to a market on Earth that has a value today and that market the critical minerals, specifically the platinum-group metals. It\u2019s a massive market and that\u2019s what we care about.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4>Lunar Trailblazer uncertainty<\/h4>\n<p>Like AstroForge, NASA also has issues communicating with its Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft, which is managed by JPL. Its mission is to map the water on the Moon\u2019s surface during a series of passes.<\/p>\n<p>Following separation from the Falcon 9 upper stage, the spacecraft began powering up and by 8:13 p.m. EST (0113 UTC) NASA said that mission operators at Caltech\u2019s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) were able to establish communications, but noted that they \u201csubsequently received engineering data, or telemetry, indicating intermittent power system issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then, less than 12 hours later, around 7:30 a.m. EST (1230 UTC) on Thursday, communication was lost with the Lunar Trailblazer.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68825\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68825\" style=\"width: 876px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-68825\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_Lunar_Trailblazer_rendering.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"876\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_Lunar_Trailblazer_rendering.jpg 876w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_Lunar_Trailblazer_rendering-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_Lunar_Trailblazer_rendering-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250225_Lunar_Trailblazer_rendering-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68825\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This artist\u2019s concept depicts NASA\u2019s Lunar Trailblazer in lunar orbit about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the surface of the Moon. The spacecraft weighs only 440 pounds (200 kilograms) and measures 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide when its solar panels are fully deployed. Graphic: Lockheed Martin Space<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cSeveral hours later, the spacecraft turned on its transmitter, and the team now is working with NASA ground stations to reestablish telemetry and commanding to better assess the power system issues and develop potential solutions,\u201d NASA said in a blog post on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight Now reached out to JPL to see what developments were made since the post went up. A spokesperson for JPL said they were still working to troubleshoot the issues and didn\u2019t have any new updates to provide.<\/p>\n<p>The Lunar Trailblazer mission was first selected as a part of NASA\u2019s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program in 2020, which offers opportunities for low-cost science spacecraft to get ride shares to space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo maintain the lower overall cost, SIMPLEx missions have a higher risk posture and less-stringent requirements for oversight and management,\u201d a NASA blog post stated. \u201cThis higher risk acceptance bolsters NASA\u2019s portfolio of targeted science missions designed to test pioneering technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Originally, Lunar Trailblazer was scheduled to fly as rideshare during the launch of the Interstellar Map and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) (scheduled to launch later in 2025), but was shifted to launch on the IM-2 mission (originally scheduled to launch in mid-2023, according to NASA).<\/p>\n<p>The roughly 200 kg (440 lb) spacecraft is roughly 3.5-meters-wide (11.5 ft) and was manufactured by Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Intuitive Machines\u2019 Nova-C lander, named Athena, is prepared for encapsulation inside SpaceX Falcon 9 payload fairings. Beneath the lander are rideshare payloads from Epic Aerospace (front), AstroForge (right), and NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (behind). Image: SpaceX via Intuitive Machines Two spacecraft that launched as rideshare payloads on Intuitive Machines\u2019 IM-2 mission are dealing with post-deployment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1182,1109,1183,1184,1185],"class_list":["post-9908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-astroforge","tag-im-2","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-lunar-trailblazer","tag-odin"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}