Perilune, the point at which the spacecraft was closest to the Moon, was near the lunar south pole. On May 4, 2015, controllers at Goddard Space Flight Center sent commands to LRO to fire its engines twice to change its orbit, taking it closer to the Moon than before-a polar orbit of about 12 x 102 miles (20 × 165 kilometers). One of the LRO instruments, the mini-RF partially failed in January 2011, although fortunately, it had already completed its primary science objectives by that time. LRO also carried out the first demonstration of laser communication with a lunar satellite when, in January 2013, NASA scientists beamed an image of the Mona Lisa from the Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging (NGSLR) station at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, to the lunar orbiter laser altimeter (LOLA) on LRO. An interactive mosaic of the lunar north pole was published in March 2014. In November 2011, NASA released the highest resolution near-topographical map of the Moon ever created, showing surface features over nearly the entire Moon. Other targets included the later Ranger impact probes, and the Soviet Luna 16, 17, 20, 23 and 24 soft-landers, and China’s Chang’e 3 and Chang’e 4 landers and rovers. In September 2010, LRO operations were handed over to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) to continue the science phase of the mission (rather than activities purely related to exploration and future missions) for another five years.Īmong LRO’s achievements was to take extremely high-resolution photographs of landing sites of several older lunar landers and impact vehicles, such as landing sites from all of the Apollo landing missions (plus Surveyor III near the Apollo 12 site) and the Apollo 13, 14, 15 and 17 Saturn IVB upper stages. At the southern pole, most of the ice is concentrated at lunar craters, while the northern pole’s ice is more widely, but sparsely spread.)
(In 2018 a team of scientists directly observed definitive evidence of water ice on the Moon’s surface. The spacecraft paid particular emphasis to the Moon’s polar regions where scientists suspected there might be water in the permanently shadowed areas. LRO gathered information on day-night temperature maps, contributed data for a global geodetic grid, and conducted high-resolution imaging. The primary mission was expected to last one year and was overseen by NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD).
LUNAR ORBITER 1 SERIES
Initial orbital parameters were roughly 19 x 134 miles (30 × 216 kilometers).Ī series of four engine firings over the next four days left LRO in its optimal orbit-roughly circular at 31 miles (50 kilometers)-allowing the satellite to begin its primary mission Sept. At 11:27 UT June 23, 2009, LRO successfully entered orbit around the Moon, having fired its rocket motor on the far side of the Moon. The Centaur upper stage boosted both LRO and LCROSS into high apogee orbits soon after launch. LRO’s primary goal was to make a 3D map of the Moon’s surface from lunar polar orbit as part of a high-resolution mapping program to identify landing sites and potential resources, to investigate the radiation environment, and to prove new technologies in anticipation of future automated and human missions to the surface of the Moon. Both were part of NASA’s now-canceled Lunar Precursor Robotic Program. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was launched with the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) on the first U.S. 23, 2009: Inserted into lunar orbit In Depth: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
LRO continues to orbit the Moon.Ĭape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. LRO’s primary goal was to make a 3D map of the Moon’s surface from lunar polar orbit. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was the first U.S. What is the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter?
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