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NASA has selected a final destination for its Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, after a journey of nearly 5.6 million miles that included several orbits around Earth and the moon. The mission team announced Wednesday that Cabeus A will be the target crater for the LCROSS dual impacts scheduled for 7:30 a.m. EDT on Oct. 9, 2009. The crater was selected after an extensive review as the optimal location for LCROSS’ evaluation of whether water ice exists at the lunar south pole.
LCROSS will search for water ice by sending its spent upper-stage Centaur rocket to impact the permanently shadowed polar crater. The satellite will fly into the plume of dust left by the impact and measure the properties before also colliding with the lunar surface. The LCROSS team selected Cabeus A based on a set of conditions that include proper debris plume illumination for visibility from Earth, a high concentration of hydrogen, and mature crater features such as a flat floor, gentle slopes and the absence of large boulders.
“The selection of Cabeus A was a result of a vigorous debate within the lunar science community that included review of the latest data from Earth-based observatories and our fellow lunar missions Kaguya, Chandrayaan-1, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principle investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “The team is looking forward to the impacts and the wealth of information this unique mission will produce.”
A cadre of professional astronomers using many of the Earth’s most capable observatories is helping maximize the scientific return from the LCROSS impacts. These observatories include the Infrared Telescope Facility and Keck telescope in Hawaii; the Magdalena Ridge and Apache Ridge Observatories in New Mexico and the MMT Observatory in Arizona; the newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope; and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, among others.
“These and several other telescopes participating in the LCROSS Observation Campaign will provide observations from different vantage points using different types of measurement techniques,” said Jennifer Heldmann, lead for the LCROSS Observation Campaign at Ames. “These multiple observations will complement the LCROSS spacecraft data to help determine whether or not water ice exists in Cabeus A.”
During a media briefing Sept. 11, Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames, provided a mission status update indicating the spacecraft is healthy and has enough fuel to successfully accomplish all mission objectives. Andrews also announced the dedication of the LCROSS mission to the memory of legendary news anchor, Walter Cronkite, who provided coverage of NASA’s missions from the beginning of America’s manned space program to the age of the space shuttle.
“Dad would sure be proud to be part, if just in name, of getting humans back up to the moon and beyond,” said Chip Cronkite, son of the famed news anchor.
The LCROSS mission was selected in April 2006 as a mission manifested with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Both missions launched on June 18, 2009 on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The LCROSS mission and science operations are managed at Ames.
“The LCROSS team has long been preparing for its final destination on the moon, and we’re looking forward to October 9,” Andrews said. “The next 28 days will undoubtedly be very exciting.”
For more information about the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite Mission and images of Cabeus A, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/lcross
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LCROSS Mission Site – NASA home page for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS mission. LCROSS Obervation Campaign – Projected lunar impact is on October 9, 2009 at 11:30 UT. Mission scientists estimate that the Centaur impact plume may be visible through amateur-class telescopes with apertures as small as 10 to 12 inches. The LCROSS mission will actively solicit images of the impact from the public. The LCROSS Mission |
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LCROSS Videos:
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Filed under: Space Missions
I believe mass drivers and space manufactured light sails are the long term solutions to the problem of solar and galactic radiation. Lunar mass drivers would be able to cheaply deliver hundreds and even thousands of tonnes of mass shielding for orbiting space stations and interplanetary vehicles in the form of regolith or water (lunar oxygen plus hydrogen from Earth or water from the lunar poles). Much simpler and cheaper regolith exporting mass drivers could be placed on the surface of the moons of Mars. Maybe even polyethylene could be manufactured on the Martian moons or at the lunar south pole if there are sources of carbon and hydrogen. Polyethylene would have only 80% of the mass of a water shield for the same amount of radiation protection.
But a properly shielded manned interplanetary vehicle is still going to require several hundred tonnes of shielding which means that we're going to need a space craft that can transport that kind of mass through interplanetary space. Space manufactured light sails would appear to be the best solution to this problem. A 20 kilometer in diameter light sail capable of transporting nearly three thousand tonnes to Mars in less than a year would weigh less than 36 tonnes if it were composed of aluminized carbon nanotube sheets rigged to a rigged support structure about twice as massive as the sail material.
If there was a light sail manufacturing plant at L1, such a facility might be operated tele-robotically from Earth. We already know how to manufacture carbon nanotube sheets on Earth. So the question is could a solar or nuclear powered nanotube sheet factory be placed at L1?.
Maybe because those other celestial objects (mercury, venus, mars, jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune and pluto) were named after greek gods…
so saying 'the mars' or 'the venus' is like saying 'the george' or 'the jack'…but the sun, the earth and the moon are actual words (not names)
“Even the most powerful telescope cannot see the flag. The flag on the moon is 125cm (4 feet) long. You would require a telescope around 200 meters in diameter to see it. The largest telescope now is the Keck Telescope in Hawaii at 10 meters in diameter. Even the Hubble Space telescope is only 2.4 meters in diameter.”
Reminds me of a series about Moon Base Alpha where our moon or a portion of it with the base on it gets blasted out of the solar system. Maybe China will reach the moon and actually stay there. They might call it Moon Base Middle Kingdom.