NASA Selects
Scientists And Investigations For Robotic Moon Mission
(10 March 2008) NASA has selected 24
scientists to initiate new investigations and assist with planned measurements
to be conducted by the agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
(LRO).
Scheduled for launch later this year, LRO represents
NASA's first step toward returning humans to the moon.
The orbiter will
conduct a one-year primary mission exploring the moon, taking measurements to
identify future robotic and human landing sites. In addition, it will study
lunar resources and how the moon's environment will affect humans. The mission
also will involve a spacecraft called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing
Satellite (LCROSS), which will impact the lunar south pole to search for
evidence of polar water frost.
"LRO is a phenomenal mission for NASA. It
has dual use, both for exploration and for science," said Alan Stern, associate
administrator, NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. "With the
selection of these new investigators the LRO science team is bulked up and
ready for flight, and interest in lunar science is building again at a rapid
pace."
A German and a Canadian researcher are among the newly selected
scientists that will work with orbiter instrument teams to define the science
goals for the extended science phase of the mission, during its second year. In
addition to achieving its exploration objectives, the spacecraft is expected to
return high quality scientific data, such as day-night temperature maps, a
global geodetic grid, high resolution colour imaging and detailed global
topography that will greatly expand our understanding of the moon.
NASA
received a total of 55 proposals in response to a NASA Research Announcement
released in 2007. A peer review panel and NASA Planetary Science Division
Research and Analysis Program scientists evaluated the proposals. Selection
criteria included intrinsic merit, relevance, responsiveness to planetary
science goals and objectives, as well as cost.
Scientists will be fully
or partially funded depending on their research work and scope of activities.
NASA will provide funding to U.S. scientists for up to three years depending on
satisfactory progress, continued relevance to NASA objectives and availability
of funds. Funding levels are being evaluated.
The orbiter and the
sensing satellite will launch together aboard an Atlas V rocket in late 2008.
The orbiter's trip to the moon will take approximately four days. Once in its
final orbit, a circular polar orbit approximately 31 miles above the moon,
spacecraft instruments will map the moon's surface at high resolution, study
its radiation field and map its gravity field.
The LCROSS will take
several months to reach the moon. That mission will search for water astronauts
could use at a future lunar outpost. The sensing spacecraft will impact the
moon near its south pole early in 2009. NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett
Field, Calif., manages the mission.
In a study published in 2007, the
National Academy of Sciences concluded that the science conducted on the moon
is of high value. NASA's Science Mission Directorate will help co-ordinate and
expand a number of in-depth research efforts in lunar science and other fields
that can benefit from human and robotic missions to the moon. The lunar
orbiter's science mission phase is one of the science directorate's many
activities that support moon exploration activities.
The LRO spacecraft
is being built and tested at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md., and includes six instruments and a technology
demonstration.
(source: NASA)
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