Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.3215b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #32.15; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.454
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
This presentation will discuss characterization of potential LCROSS impact sites and the requirements for impact site selection. LCROSS, the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, will be launched on the same rocket as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) next year. The primary LCROSS science goal is to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed region on the Moon. To achieve this goal, the LCROSS spacecraft will set the rocket's Centaur Earth departure upper stage (EDUS) on an impact trajectory with the Moon. Following four minutes behind the EDUS, LCROSS will fly through the resulting impact plume, using its 9 instruments (cameras, spectrometers, and photometer) to characterize the plume and identify water.
Target selection will be key to the success of this mission. Characterizing the expected terrain within the crater will be difficult because the target impact site is required to be permanently shadowed. Because of lack of high resolution visible imaging at the poles, we use high resolution Earth-based radar data, which can directly observe some parts of the permanently shadowed regions. Once the tools and analysis methods are established, we will be ready to quickly assess new data provided by the instruments on LRO, which will begin taking data 2-3 months prior to the LCROSS impact. The constraints on the impact site selection are: (1) the ejecta plume must be observable by ground-based and orbital observatories. (2) the ejecta must be illuminated by sunlight, since the instruments primarily measure reflected light. (3) the target should be in a region with low roughness, low slopes, and deep regolith cover. (4) the target should be in a region with an observed concentration of increased hydrogen, which could indicate presence of water.
Bart Gwendolyn D.
Colaprete Anthony
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