An Overview of The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Mission - An ESMD Mission to Investigate Lunar Polar Hydrogen

Details An Overview of The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Mission - An ESMD Mission to Investigate Lunar Polar Hydrogen An Overview of The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Mission - An ESMD Mission to Investigate Lunar Polar Hydrogen

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.5716c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #57.16; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.591

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission will advance the Vision for Space Exploration by identifying the presence of water ice at one of the Moon's poles. This mission provides a 2000kg kinetic impactor that will have more than 200 times the energy of the Lunar Prospector impact. The resulting ejecta cloud is expected to exceed 500 metric tons and will be visible from a number of Lunar-orbital and Earth-based assets. The impact is achieved by steering the entire launch vehicle's spent Earth Departure Upper Stage (EDUS) into a permanently shadowed polar region. The EDUS is guided to its target by a Shepherding Spacecraft (S-S/C), which after release of the EDUS, flies toward the impact ejecta cloud, telemetering real-time data and characterizing the morphology, evolution and composition of the cloud with a suite of cameras and spectrometers. The S-S/C then becomes a 700kg impactor itself, to provide a second opportunity to study the nature of the Lunar regolith. LCROSS provides a critical ground-truth for Lunar Prospector and LRO neutron and radar maps, making it possible to assess the total lunar water inventory.

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