Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LRO Press Briefing 17th Sept 2009

Craig Tooley, LRO Project Manager, Michael Wargo, Chief Lunar Scientist, Richard Vondrak, LRO Project Scientist and David Smith, LOLA Principal Investigator discuss the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission mapping the Lunar South Pole.

Scientists explain LRO and LCROSS Lunar mission objectives and instruments

This presentation from the chief scientists working on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) covers the mission objectives of both spacecraft including a guide to the array of sensing instruments and their role during each mission.

LRO will map the topography and surface temperature of the Moon in order to identify regions which are safe for a lunar landing and are of scientific interest.

LCROSS will be a short lived mission in terms of data collection since it sole purpose is to observe a controlled lunar impact by its spent upper stage Centaur rocket prior to its own impact shortly afterward.

In addition to LCROSS other assets will observe the impact of the Centaur rocket and LCROSS itself which will include the Hubble Space Telescope, earthbound telescopes and the LRO.

LRO Video Playlist

LCROSS Video Playlist

Moon Links

This 1.5min LRO promo is like a big SciFi movie trailer

LRO launched successfully yesterday and this promo demonstrates very succinctly the purpose of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.

Surprisingly there is very little known about the geography of the Moon, in fact more is known about Mars, so it is hoped that there will be some exciting discoveries made over the next few years as scientists analyse the data coming back from LRO.

LRO Video Playlist

Lunar Links

STS127 launch scrub may bump LRO and LCROSS launch by 2 weeks

They say lightning never strikes twice but it did today, exactly the same reason for launch scrub as STS119. The reason for the scrub was a leaking H2 gas vent on the outside of the upper portion of the shuttle external fuel tank. Now this has happened on two occasions so close together there will probably be a major review of procedures to prevent this happening again on future launches.

Last time this happened the problem was resolved successfully within the predicted timescale on STS119, so assuming nothing unusual is found after inspection on Sunday the main debate will center around the impact on the LRO/LCROSS mission which was scheduled for launch on 17th June. Due to the number of days required for pre and post launch work by the ground support crews its becomes very difficult to overlap launches at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center.

With the looming ISS Beta cutout, ISS build/servicing schedule, Soyuz docking, termination of Shuttle program etc... it seems fairly likely that STS-127 will get prioritised and LRO/LCROSS will be bumped by NASA to the next available launch window in 2 weeks, unless they can figure out a way of overlapping launch windows for both STS127 and LRO/LCROSS.

STS127 NASA Briefings

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to map Moon for optimal landing sites

The purpose of the upcoming LRO mission currently scheduled for 17th June 2009 will be to identify safe places for landing which are also of scientific interest to investigating the Moon's natural resources.

LRO Video Playlist