Space Topics: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
Mission Information
Basic Facts
Launch Date: February or March 2009
Launch Vehicle: Atlas 401
Launch Site: Kennedy Space Center
Orbit: Mapping orbit will be 30-50 kilometers from the surface of the Moon.
Main spacecraft: Total mass of 1,000 kilograms, out of which about 100 kilograms is payload capacity.
Power: Power will be supplied by solar arrays that will charge a Lithium-Ion battery. It will be propelled by a mono- or bi-propulsion engine, with a fuel mass of 500-700 kilograms.
Communication: High speed downlink will be over Ka-band, and low-speed up- and down-link will be over S-band.
Timeline
Primary mission end: one year after reaching final mapping orbit. After
that, it may do up to five years of low-power, extended observations or
may serve as a communications relay satellite for a few years.
Mission objectives
LRO is the first of a series of Moon missions in NASA's Lunar Precursor and Robotic Program (LPRP). The LPRP program is focused on testing equipment and systems that can be adapted for later Mars missions. As the first step in this program, LRO will focus on those parts of the Moon that will affect human travel to the Moon. These include the following:
- Measuring radiation between Earth and the Moon
- Measuring the polar lighting and heat environment
- Searching for evidence of water ice and mapping hydrogen
- Finding possible landing sites
- Measuring elevation and mapping permanently shadowed regions
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