NASA’s tiny lunar probe continues to struggle with engine problems as it tries to reach its destination, but there’s still time to fix that. The Lunar Lantern was launched in December 2022 to search for lunar ice. However, Cubesat encountered engine problems during its mission to test the new “green” fuel on its way to the moon. NASA officials launched its mission from orbit to the Moon a few weeks ago. However, agency officials said on Thursday (March 23rd) that the replaced mission has yet to be defined.

“The operations team was working on ways to partially restore one or more engines to keep the spacecraft in the Earth-Moon system,” NASA officials wrote in a blog post. “They have had some success, but continue to try new things to clear suspected obstructions in the engine’s fuel lines,” the report states. “They have until the end of April to build up the necessary thrust to maintain the possibility of a monthly flight to the Moon’s south pole.”

The Lunar Lantern was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December 2022. It was carried by the Emirati Rashid rover, Japan’s private lunar lander, on its way to the moon landing in April. However, NASA’s Cubesat had a few problems.

Three days after launch, the Lunar Flashlight’s experimental engine was not producing as much thrust as expected; three of the system’s four engines were not running. As weeks of troubleshooting spanned months, NASA decided in February to abandon its main mission to enter a near-linear halo orbit (NRHO) earlier than the path NASA’s Gateway space station planned to use. (CAPSTONE, another test mission to the Moon, is in this orbit and can relay information about it to engineers.)

NASA and mission partners at the Georgia Institute of Technology emphasize that lunar flights will still be valuable as they will bring the cubic satellite to the moon’s south pole, where NASA’s Artemis program aims to land astronauts as early as 2025. But that’s assuming the miniature thruster takes Cubesat to the moon as planned; In any case, the agency said it will draw lessons from the experience that will aid future spacecraft design.