January 7, 1998
Lunar Prospector--Mission to the Moon
Artist's conception of Lunar Prospector shows the spacecraft in lunar orbit with its instrument masts fully deployed.
Image Credit: Discovery/NASA
For the first time in 25 years, NASA is revisiting the site where astronauts took those historic first steps--the Moon. On January 6, 1998, the space agency launched the Lunar Prospector space probe. Part of the NASA Discovery program, the Lunar Prospector's emphasis will be on science and a "Faster, Better, Cheaper" mission. NASA scientists hope the Lunar Prospector will answer some longstanding questions about the Moon's origin, evolution, and potential resources.
The Lunar Prospector will be studying the minerals and gases of the Moon's surface. It will also determine whether there is water ice on the lunar south pole, a question first raised in the early seventies and again by the 1994 Clementine mission. This information is significant because it could influence the design of future explorations of the Moon.
The Lunar Prospector will circle the Moon in a polar orbit 63 miles (100 km) above its surface, the closest any orbiting spacecraft has come. The polar orbit will allow the Prospector to survey the entire surface.
The Lunar Prospector design is simple--a small, spin-stabilized graphite-epoxy drum (1.4 m x 1.2 m or 4.6 ft. x 3.9 ft.) with surface-mounted solar cells and three 2.5m (8.2ft) masts which carry the instruments. The Prospector doesn't have any type of photographic equipment.
The future of space exploration could greatly benefit from the Prospector mission. The Moon could be the site of the first permanent human outpost in the solar system. This could permit ongoing lunar and astronomy studies and long-range observations of the Earth.
More Cool Stuff
- For additional details, check out NASA's Lunar Prospector Web site:
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http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/
- To learn more about the Clementine mission:
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http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/bmdolink/html/clemtine.html
- Everything you ever wanted to know about the Moon:
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http://www.telescope.org/rti/nuffield/moon/moon1.html
As part of its Learning Technologies Project (LTP), NASA supports a number of educational Web sites that have excellent material on the space sciences:
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http://observe.ivv.nasa.gov/nasa/education/edu/edudocs/topic_space.html