NASA'S Lunar Spacecraft Completes Exploration Mission Phase
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, will
complete the exploration phase of its mission on Sept. 16, after a
number of successes that transformed our understanding of Earth's
nearest neighbor.
LRO completed a one-year exploration mission in a polar orbit
approximately 31 miles above the moon's surface. It produced a
comprehensive map of the lunar surface in unprecedented detail;
searched for resources and safe landing sites for potential future
missions to the moon; and measured lunar temperatures and radiation levels.
The mission is turning its attention from exploration objectives to
scientific research, as program management moves from NASA's
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to the Science Mission
Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington.
"LRO has been an outstanding success. The spacecraft has performed
brilliantly," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator of the
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. "LRO's science and
engineering teams achieved all of the mission's objectives, and the
incredible data LRO gathered will provide discoveries about the moon
for years to come."
The LRO team will continue to send data gathered during the last year
to the Planetary Data System, which archives and distributes
scientific information from NASA planetary missions, astronomical
observations and laboratory measurements.
By the time LRO achieves full mission success in March, and its data
is processed and released to the scientific community, it will have
sent more information to the Planetary Data System than all other
previous planetary missions combined. During its new phase of
discovery, LRO will continue to map the moon for two to four more years.
"The official start of LRO's science phase should write a new and
intriguing chapter in lunar research," said Ed Weiler, associate
administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. "This mission is
one more asset added to NASA's vast science portfolio."
The spacecraft launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
carrying a suite of seven instruments on June 18, 2009. LRO formally
began its detailed survey of the moon in September 2009.
Results from the mission include: new observations of the Apollo
landing sites; indications that permanently shadowed and nearby
regions may harbor water and hydrogen; observations that large areas
in the permanently shadowed regions are colder than Pluto; detailed
information about lunar terrain; and the first evidence of a globally
distributed population of thrust faults that indicates the moon has
recently contracted and may still be shrinking.
LRO also took high resolution pictures of the Lunokhod 1 rover that
had been lost for almost 40 years. The rover, which carries a
retroreflector, was located to within approximately 150 feet. The
accurate position data enabled researchers on Earth to bounce laser
signals off the retroreflector for the first time ever. The
retroreflector is providing important new information about the
position and motion of the moon.
LRO also supported the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite
impact, a companion mission sent to determine if the moon's poles
harbor water ice, by helping to select a promising impact site. LRO
observed both the expanding plume that arose after the impact and the
evolving temperature at the site.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built and
manages LRO for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. The
Institute for Space Research in Moscow provides the neutron detector
aboard the spacecraft. For more information about LRO, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/lro
Source: NASA
