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The NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, created twin impacts on the moon’s surface early on October 9, 2009 in a search for water ice. Scientists will analyze data from the spacecraft’s instruments to assess whether water ice is present.
The satellite traveled 5.6 million miles during an historic 113-day mission that ended in the Cabeus crater, a permanently shadowed region near the moon’s south pole. The spacecraft was launched June 18 as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“The LCROSS science instruments worked exceedingly well and returned a wealth of data that will greatly improve our understanding of our closest celestial neighbor,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “The team is excited to dive into data.”
In preparation for impact, LCROSS and its spent Centaur upper stage rocket separated about 54,000 miles above the surface of the moon on Thursday at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT.
Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the Centaur hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.
“This is a great day for science and exploration,” said Doug Cooke,associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The LCROSS data should prove to be an impressive addition to the tremendous leaps in knowledge about the moon that have been achieved in recent weeks. I want to congratulate the LCROSS team for their tremendous achievement in development of this low cost spacecraft and for their perseverance through a number of difficult technical and operational challenges.”?
Other observatories reported capturing both impacts. The data will be shared with the LCROSS science team for analysis. The LCROSS team expects it to take several weeks of analysis before it can make a definitive assessment of the presence or absence of water ice.
“I am very proud of the success of this LCROSS mission team,” said Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames. “Whenever this team would hit a roadblock, it conceived a clever work-around allowing us to push forward with a successful mission.”
The images and video collected by the amateur astronomer community and the public also will be used to enhance our knowledge about the moon.
“One of the early goals of the mission was to get as many people to look at the LCROSS impacts in as many ways possible, and we succeeded,” said Jennifer Heldmann, Ames’ coordinator of the LCROSS observation campaign. “The amount of corroborated information that can be pulled out of this one event is fascinating.”
“It has been an incredible journey since LCROSS was selected in April 2006,” said Andrews. “The LCROSS Project faced a very ambitious schedule and an uncommonly small budget for a mission of this size. LCROSS could be a model for how small robotic missions are executed. This is truly big science on a small budget.”
| More Information | |||||
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Water Molecules Discovered On The Moon
LCROSS Reveals Target Crater For Lunar South Pole Impacts LCROSS Impact Observer’s Guide |
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Filed under: Space Missions
just a theory for thought remember last year when they bombed the south pole of the moon the LCROSS mission supposedly looking for water, which they already knew was there anyway. I wonder if they bombed the moon cause they knew it's tilting and didnt want us to see something that would add to the cooking pot !! or maybe Lcross played a part in it's increased revolution just a theory !
We never do see 100% of the lit surface of the moon. But we can get to see more than 50% of the lunar surface over time due to a process called libration. One cause of libration is the non-circularity of the orbit of the moon. When it is closest to the earth it revolves faster, and when it is farther away it revolves more slowly. But, because the rotation of the moon is constant we can see a bit more of the eastern hemisphere, then a bit more of the western hemisphere of the moon. In all, we see about 59% of the surface of the moon. In addition, since we are not at an infinite distance from the moon, which is continuously curving body, we never, in any event, could see exactly 50% at a time (the apparent edges, or limbs, basically hide themselves by their own curvature). This amount we can't see is quite small, however, due to the relatively large distance between us and the moon.
James Mason at NASA Ames Research Center near Palo Alto has theorised that a 5kw ground-based laser could be used to ‘zap’ space junk and displace it so it would not cause any more collisions. By constantly zapping the pieces of junk, they would eventually slow down enough so that they would ‘de-orbit’ themselves.
We never do see 100% of the lit surface of the moon, for the reason you posted. One of the answerers mentioned libration, and it was correct as far as it went. Another cause of libration is the non-circularity of the orbit of the moon. When it is closest to the earth it revolves faster, and when it is farther away it revolves more slowly. But, because the rotation of the moon is constant we can see a bit more of the eastern hemisphere, then a bit more of the western hemisphere of the moon. In all, we see about 59% of the surface of the moon. In addition, since we are not at an infinite distance from the moon, which is continuously curving body, we never, in any event, could see exactly 50% at a time (the apparent edges, or limbs, basically hide themselves by their own curvature). This amount we can't see is quite small, however, due to the relatively large distance between us and the moon.