New Moon Map Reveals Shrouded Craters
A vivid
new topographical map of the moon's south pole paints
rainbow colors over contours, revealing craters that are permanently shadowed.
NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. created the new false-color
map from observations gathered by the Goldstone
Solar System Radar, located in California's Mojave Desert.
The map will help mission planners
for NASA?s new Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), a small
spacecraft now that is destined to slam into the lunar south pole region
Oct. 9.
"Since the beginning of time, these lunar craters have been invisible to
humanity," Barbara Wilson, a scientist at JPL said in a statement.
"Now we can see detailed topography inside these craters.?
Wilson said the new map revealed
lunar crater features at a resolution of about 132 feet (40 meters) per pixel.
To produce this map,Goldstone?s massive antenna, three-quarters the size
of a football field, sent a 500-kilowatt, 90-minute-long radar stream to the
moon, 231,800 miles (373,046 kilometers) away. The moon?s rugged terrain
reflected the signals back to Goldstone, a roundtrip time clocked at 2.5
seconds.
The scientists compared their data
against that from a laser altimeter recently released by the Japanese Aerospace
Exploration Agency's Kaguya mission. The new map
provides contiguous topographic detail over a region approximately 311 miles
(500 km) by 249 miles (400 km).
Its contour data will help mission
planners plot out the planned impact zone for the LCROSS probe and its attached
Centaur rocket stage. NASA plans to intentially crash
the two vehicles into the permanently shadowed craters of the moon?s south pole. Telescopes in space and on Earth will then scan
the resulting plume of material for signs of water
ice.
NASA launched the LCROSS probe and a
larger spacecraft, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, last month. The orbiter is
currently circling the moon and has beamed home its first high-resolution
images of the lunar surface.
Goldstone?s 230-foot (70-meter)
radar dish is one-third of the Deep Space
Network used to monitor spacecraft across the solar system. The other two
antennas are in Madrid, Spain and Canberra, Australia.
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