NASA mission to seek water ice on Moon
February 18th, 2009 - 3:06 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Feb 18 (ANI): NASAs Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which will seek water ice on Moon, is enroute from Northrop Grummans facility in Redondo Beach, California, to the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for a spring launch.
The satellites primary mission is to search for water ice on the moon in a permanently shadowed crater near one of the lunar poles.
LCROSS is a low-cost, accelerated-development, companion mission to NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.
At Kennedy, the two spacecraft will be integrated with an Atlas V launch vehicle and tested for final flight worthiness.
LCROSS and LRO are the first missions in NASAs plan to return humans to the moon and begin establishing a lunar outpost by 2020.
After launch, the LCROSS spacecraft and the Atlas Vs Centaur upper stage rocket will fly by the moon and enter into an elongated orbit to position the satellite for impact.
On final approach, the spacecraft and Centaur will separate.
The Centaur will strike the chosen lunar crater, creating a debris plume that will rise above the surface.
Four minutes later, LCROSS will fly through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before striking the moon’’s surface and creating a second debris plume.
Scientists will use data from the debris clouds to determine the presence or absence of water ice.
To remain within budget and a short schedule of 26 months, the LCROSS project team developed a simple yet innovative spacecraft that uses existing NASA systems, commercial-off-the-shelf components modified to survive the harsh conditions of space, and the spacecraft design and development expertise of integration partner Northrop Grumman Space Technologies.
LCROSS delivers a high science value per dollar, said Steve Hixson, vice president for advanced concepts at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach.
With its versatile, fast and cost efficient architecture, the LCROSS spacecraft serves as a pathfinder for future low-cost Earth and space science missions, he added. (ANI)
- NASA set to bomb the moon today - Oct 09, 2009
- NASA spacecraft to take images of Apollo landing sites - Aug 12, 2011
- NASA's Moon mission successfully completes lunar maneuver - Jun 24, 2009
- Water-hunting satellite to reach moon Tuesday - Jun 23, 2009
- Satellites' launch to give boost to NASA's 'return to Moon' mission - May 22, 2009
- Nasa LCROSS impact mission on moon successful - Oct 09, 2009
- Nasa spacecraft impacts lunar crater in search for water ice - Oct 09, 2009
- NASA'S LRO completes exploration mission phase - Sep 16, 2010
- NASA spacecraft to search for water on the Moon - Jun 25, 2008
- NASA's LCROSS confirms presence of water in lunar crater - Nov 14, 2009
- NASA's new lunar mission to hunt for water on Moon - Jun 19, 2009
- NASA's water-hunting "Moon bombing" mission may have hit a "dry hole" - Oct 10, 2009
- Researchers create most comprehensive moon map - Dec 20, 2010
- NASA starts back to moon with dual mission (Lead) - Jun 19, 2009
- NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter begins detailed mapping of moon's south pole - Sep 18, 2009
Tags: accelerated development, aerospace systems, debris clouds, flight worthiness, grumman aerospace, integration partner, kennedy space center, launch vehicle, lcross, lunar crater, lunar poles, lunar reconnaissance orbiter, nasa mission, northrop grumman, redondo beach california, science value, shelf components, space technologies, spacecraft design, stage rocket
