July 3, 2009: NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has
transmitted its first images since reaching lunar orbit June 23. The
spacecraft has two cameras -- a low resolution Wide Angle Camera and
a high resolution Narrow Angle Camera. Collectively known as the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, they were activated
June 30. The cameras are working well and have returned images of a
region a few kilometers east of Hell E crater in the lunar highlands
south of Mare Nubium.
As the moon rotates beneath LRO, LROC gradually will build up
photographic maps of the lunar surface. To view these first
calibration images, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/lro
"Our first images were taken along the moon's terminator -- the
dividing line between day and night -- making us initially unsure of
how they would turn out, " said LROC Principal Investigator Mark
Robinson of Arizona State University in Tempe. "Because of the deep
shadowing, subtle topography is exaggerated, suggesting a craggy and
inhospitable surface. In reality, the area is similar to the region
where the Apollo 16 astronauts safely explored in 1972. While these
are magnificent in their own right, the main message is that LROC is
nearly ready to begin its mission."
LRO will help NASA identify safe landing sites for future explorers,
locate potential resources, describe the moon's radiation environment
and demonstrate new technologies.
The satellite also has started to activate its six other instruments.
The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector will look for regions with
enriched hydrogen that potentially could have water ice deposits. The
Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation is designed to
measure the moon's radiation environment. Both were activated on June
19 and are functioning normally.
Instruments expected to be activated during the next week and
calibrated are the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, designed to build
3-D topographic maps of the moon's landscape; the Diviner Lunar
Radiometer Experiment, which will make temperature maps of the lunar
surface; and the Miniature Radio Frequency, or Mini-RF, an
experimental radar and radio transmitter that will search for
subsurface ice and create detailed images of permanently-shaded
craters.
The final instrument, the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project, will be
activated after the other instruments have completed their
calibrations, allowing more time for residual contaminants from the
manufacture and launch of LRO to escape into the vacuum of space.
This instrument is an ultraviolet-light imager that will use
starlight to search for surface ice. It will take pictures of the
permanently-shaded areas in deep craters at the lunar poles.
"Accomplishing these significant milestones moves us closer to our
goals of preparing for safe human return to the moon, mapping the
moon in unprecedented detail, and searching for resources, " said LRO
Project Scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md.
While its instruments are being activated and tested, the spacecraft
is in a special elliptical commissioning orbit around the moon. The
orbit takes less fuel to maintain than the mission's primary orbit.
The commissioning orbit's closest point to the lunar surface is about
19 miles over the moon's south pole, and its farthest point is
approximately 124 miles over the lunar north pole.
After the spacecraft and instruments have completed their initial
calibrations, the spacecraft will be directed into its primary
mission orbit in August, a nearly-circular orbit about 31 miles above
the lunar surface.
Goddard built and manages LRO, a NASA mission with international
participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. Russia
provides the neutron detector aboard the spacecraft.
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