BOULDER, Colo. -- NASA announced Wednesday
the suite of U.S.
science investigators for its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) project, as
well as a Russian scientist.
The U.S. Moon probe is the first spacecraft to be built as
part of the Vision for Space Exploration, put into motion earlier this year by
U.S. President George W. Bush. LRO is slated for a liftoff in the fall of 2008,
under the auspices of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program.
The LRO underpins NASA's interest in replanting human
footprints on the Moon.
President Bush has called for the space agency to conduct the first extended
human expedition to the lunar surface as early as 2015, but no later than the
year 2020.
Not only will LRO characterize future robotic and human
landing spots, the spacecraft will be equipped to inventory possible resources
for human crews to "live off the land" -- in this case what's available on the
crater-pocked Moon. Another key duty of the LRO is to characterize the lunar
radiation environment and its impact on humans.
Lunar
investigators
The six selected investigations and principal investigators
(PI) for the LRO are:
n
Lunar
Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA): Determines the
global topography of the lunar surface at high resolution, measure landing site
slopes and search for polar ices in shadowed regions. PI, David Smith, NASA Goddard
Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
n
Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC): Acquires targeted
images of the lunar surface capable of resolving small-scale features that
could be landing site hazards, as well as wide-angle images at multiple
wavelengths of the lunar poles to document changing illumination conditions and
potential resources. PI, Mark Robinson, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
n
Lunar
Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND): Maps the flux of
neutrons from the lunar surface to search for evidence of water ice and provide
measurements of the space radiation environment which can be useful for future
human exploration. PI, Igor Mitrofanov, Institute for Space Research, and
Federal Space Agency, Moscow.
n
Diviner
Lunar Radiometer Experiment: Charts the temperature of the
entire lunar surface at roughly 985 feet (300 meter) horizontal scales to
identify cold-traps and potential ice deposits. PI, David Paige, University of California,
Los Angeles.
n
Lyman-Alpha
Mapping Project (LAMP): Observes the entire lunar surface
in the far ultraviolet. LAMP will search for surface ices and frosts in the polar regions and provide images of permanently shadowed
regions illuminated only by starlight. PI, Alan Stern, Southwest Research
Institute, Boulder, Colorado.
n
Cosmic
Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER):
Investigates the effect of galactic cosmic rays on tissue-equivalent plastics
as a constraint on models of biological response to background space radiation.
PI, Harlan Spence, Boston University,
Massachusetts.
Instrumentation provided by these selected measurement
investigations will be the payload of the mission scheduled to launch in
October 2008.
Whole
new ball game
"LRO will deliver measurements that will be critical to the
key decisions we must make before the end of this decade," said NASA's
Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Craig
Steidle.
"We are extremely excited by this innovative payload, and we
are confident it will fulfill our expectations and support the Vision for Space
Exploration," Steidle explained in a NASA press statement.
"LRO is a great mission, and long overdue," said
Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute here. "It promises to locate
any ice near the lunar poles...which will greatly advance the cause of
exploration."
Stern told SPACE.com
that LRO will also return scientific and engineering datasets of "stunning
quality" and will revolutionize our understanding of the Moon and our ability
to stage human missions there in the next decade. "LRO is the kickoff to a
whole new ball game for NASA."
The LRO project is
managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This space agency field center
will also acquire the launch system and spacecraft, as well as perform payload
accommodations, mission systems engineering and assurance duties.
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