NASA prepares for weekend launch missions to learn about the Milky Way and the Sunshine

After a brief delay, NASA will release two missions this weekend, namely Spherex and Punch, which will map the universe and track the sun’s impact on space.

For NASA, it’s a fall, a go. Yesterday, SpaceX Falcon 9 launched NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer, successfully evacuated from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It’s time for Spherex and Punch, initially expected to be launched from California’s Van Denberg Space Force Base on Friday. Both missions are encapsulated in Falcon 9 and are now scheduled to take off at 10:09 PM ET on Sunday, March 2. Lunar Trailblazer and Spherex are both supported by the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center or IPAC at the California Institute of Technology.

Lunar Trailblazer was launched on the moon at 7:16 p.m. Wednesday. The mission will map water, minerals and temperatures on the moon’s surface using two scientific instruments (LTMs) called high-resolution volatile and mineral mappers (HVM3) and lunar thermal mappers (LTM). The maps produced by the mission will help NASA and other researchers determine the best locations for future robotic and human missions on our rock satellites, including people investigating the moon’s ice and the potential to harvest water.

Lunar Trailblazer is a small innovative task of NASA’s Planetary Exploration (or Simplex) program that provides a pathway to developing low-cost tasks. For wit, the Lunar Trail Blazers hitchhikes with three other spacecraft, including the IM-2 Lunar Lander-Into Space of the Intuitive Machine. You can read more about Lunar Lander on the NASA website and watch the posting of the task on NASA’s YouTube channel – for your convenience, we’ve linked below. You can also read more about Trail Blazers and other tasks that are part of Thursday’s payload.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrmsovkvlpg

Next comes Spherex and Punch. Spherex (spectrometer for the history of the universe, the age of ionization and ICES Explorer) will solve several goals. The mission aims to refine our understanding of cosmic inflation, track the history of light in galaxies, and study the role of water and ice in star and planet formation.

Spherex’s nominal mission will last for more than two years, and when operated, the mission will provide astronomers with the first full-length near-infrared spectral survey. According to a release from the Caltech Institute, the observatory has a unique equipment that allows large-scale investigations into the Milky Way of water ice and other frozen compounds.

Spherex will also be activated with companion payload: punching or polarizer unified corona and Earth ball. Punching consists of four satellites that will form a constellation in low-Earth orbit from which they can conduct global 3D observations of the internal Earth strata and better understand how the sun’s corona makes the solar wind give position. The pre-release press conference will be broadcast live on NASA+ app on Saturday, March 1 at 3:30 ET.

The press conference will be broadcast live, and you are welcome to watch it below. Release coverage should start around 9:15 ET on Sunday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qktcmqjdgkg

With Spherex launching on Sunday, we will end a turbulent month in space flight, one of which is rocket launches, debris waterfalls, and major progress, and peek at the space agency’s future mission plans.