Lunar reconnaissance orbiter12/30/2023 Even Griffin says that China will probably put a person on the moon before the United States returns there-Chinese astronauts completed their first spacewalk this September, and Griffin told the BBC this summer that China could beat America's 2020 target by two or three years. Those plans are up in the air, however, as the economy slides and President-elect Barack Obama decides whether to retain Griffin.Īnd while the LRO could help NASA return to the moon, other nations are scrambling to become the second to complete a manned lunar mission. NASA administrator Michael Griffin, one of the foremost advocates of sending astronauts back to the moon and beyond, wants the Orion to put Americans back on the lunar surface by 2020. will lack a vehicle to even ferry humans into space until the Orion craft debuts, which would be 2015 at the earliest. The orbiter will also carry the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which will crash into the moon's surface and try to free water that might be trapped underneath.Īfter the planned retirement of the space shuttles in 2010, the U.S. In just one year's time orbiting around the moon, the LRO will take high-resolution images to map the surface, determine the slopes of prospective landing sites, measure radiation that could be harmful to astronauts, and learn more about the moon's chemical makeup and resources. The orbiter is more than just another satellite looking at moon rocks-this mission is one of the first steps in NASA's mission to return humans to the moon, and use the moon as a springboard to reach beyond. After a few slight changes to its radiators to even out the temperature, the LRO passed with flying colors, says Goddard engineer Dave Everett, paving the way to its launch aboard an Atlas V rocket in about four months. NASA engineers subjected the spacecraft to hot, cold vibrations and electromagnetic radiation during vacuum testing at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Other probes will follow to prepare for a manned mission to the Moon before 2020.The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a go. In October of the same year, two lunar impacts were made in the search for water and there was evidence of both water and hydroxyl ions in a crater (Cabeus) near the south pole. In a one-year mission, the LRO probe orbited the Moon at about 50 kilometres in an exploration phase, ending in September 2010. The LEND instrument (Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector), developed by the Moscow Institute for Space Research, will study the level of neutron emission caused by cosmic rays bombarding the Moon this level varies depending on the composition of the surface. In this way it was be able to detect any ice crystals. On December 17, 2010, a topographic map of the Moon was made available to the public. The LOLA instrument (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter) has made a precise relief map of the Moon, and measured the refractive index of reflection of the surface. The LAMP project (Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project) is to detect the presence of ice at the bottom of lunar craters using a probe observing in the ultraviolet. The Diviner instrument will make a temperature map of the surface so that regions where there could be ice can be rapidly identified. Some scientific experiments have been developed with this objective. The purpose of the mission is to map the surface of the Moon with a hitherto unequalled accuracy, to study its radiation environment and above all to search for any ice that may be present. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA probe for studying the Moon.
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