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Planetary News: LRO and LCROSS (2009)LRO Enters Lunar OrbitJune 23, 2009
Four and a half days after its launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has entered orbit around the Moon. According to mission controllers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland the spacecraft entered orbit at 6:27 a.m. EDT on Tuesday. June 23 2009. Mid-way through its journey engineers performed a course correction to aim the spacecraft at precisely the right angle to the lunar surface. When close to the Moon, LRO used its rocket motor to slow down until the gravity of the Moon caught the spacecraft and brought it into lunar orbit. “Lunar orbit insertion is a crucial milestone for the mission,” said Cathy Peddie, LRO deputy project manager at Goddard. “The LRO mission cannot begin until the Moon captures us. Once we enter the Moon’s orbit, we can begin to buildup the dataset needed to understand in greater detail the lunar topography, features and resources.” A series of four engine burns over the next four days will put the spacecraft in a "commissioning orbit," during which each its instruments will be checked out and brought online. This phase will end approximately 60 days after launch, when LRO will use its engines to transition to its primary mission orbit. Along with its scientific payload LRO also carries with it to the Moon the names of all the members of The Planetary Society. This is part of the Society's "Messages from Earth" project, aimed at sending members' names into space on each NASA interplanetary mission. For its primary mission LRO will circle the moon in a polar orbit at an altitude of about 50 kilometers (31 miles), closer to the lunar surface than any previous mission. The spacecraft will then spend the following year using its seven instruments to compile high resolution, three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface and also survey it at many spectral wavelengths. LRO will explore the Moon’s deepest craters, examining permanently sunlit and shadowed regions, and provide understanding of the effects of lunar radiation on humans. It will also launch the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) that will search for water ice in the Moon's polar regions by sending an impactor into a crater and closely studying the resulting cloud of dust. LRO is the NASA's contribution to the International Lunar Decade, following missions by the European Space Agency, China, Japan, and India. By the time it completes its mission, LRO will have gathered more data about the Moon than any previous mission. Did you like this story? Send
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