- Hello, Neighbor!
- Posted on Feb 04, 2011 10:25:55 AM | null The Moon: Our Nearest Neighbor
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Hello! Thanks for visiting our moon missions blog. We're expanding the blog focus from two moon missions to relating information about the moon as "Our Nearest Neighbor." New posts will focus on observations of the moon, ongoing studies of Apollo era data, flybys and investigations from Discovery and Lunar Quest Missions -- these observations and missions continue contributing to our knowledge base -- in this space we will share what we persist to uncover about “our nearest neighbor."
Apollo 8 image of the moon. (NASA)
- LCROSS Hits Its Mark!
- Posted on Oct 09, 2009 12:42:44 PM | NASA's New Moon Missions
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Onlookers participate in LCROSS pre-impact activities at NASA's Ames
Research Center. Credit: NASAThe crowd at NASA Ames was poised and ready for impact as the LCROSS camera started sending back stunning images of the moon's south pole. At impact, a flash or large plume wasn't visible with the LCROSS camera, but even though we didn’t see it doesn't mean it wasn't there.
The LCROSS mission operations team initiated power-up of the LCROSS science
payload and captured this image of the moon. Credit: NASAMission scientists confirmed the LCROSS spacecraft monitored whatever the Centaur rocket lifted from the crater floor. At this time, it isn't yet clear how much dust was raised but LCROSS Principal Investigator Tony Colaprete did confirm that the instruments onboard the sheparding spacecraft captured the Centaur impact crater.
Now mission scientists need more time to study the data. In the next few weeks, scientists will pore over the information to determine if water ice does exist in the Cabeus crater.
To stay up to date, be sure to follow the LCROSS website, the LCROSS twitter feed, and its Facebook page.
- Impact from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's Line of Sight
- Posted on Oct 08, 2009 10:31:27 AM | NASA's New Moon Missions
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Scientist and engineers are adjusting LRO's orbit to have it fly its closest approach to the Cabeus target site just 90 seconds after the Centaur impacts the lunar surface.
Artist Concept of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter with Apollo mission
imagery in the background. Credit: NASAThe Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, better known as LRO, was a sister payload to LCROSS during launch and now the orbiter will pass over the moon at just the right time to capture the Centaur impact to collect key data about the physics of the impact and how volatile materials may have been mobilized.
This image shows the moon's south pole, as seen by the 1994 Clementinemission. The possibility of frozen water is one of many reasons NASA is
interested in thisspot as a potential future landing site. However, many of the
craters in this area where frozen water sources are most likely to be found are
in constant shadow, which inhibited Clementine's ability to see into these craters.
These shadows are the very dark areas at the pole's center. The upcoming
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission will study this area and search for
evidence of frozen water sources. Credit: NASADuring and after impact LRO's LAMP far UV spectrometer will search for evidence of significant water ice or water signatures and how they evolve in the moon's atmosphere. LRO's Diviner radiometer will peer into the impact site to measure the heating effects caused by impact and how the temperature changes over time. LRO will continue to study the impact site using its suite of instruments long after the dust settles.
A Personal Perspective
David A. Paige, principal investigator Diviner
Diviner is one of the seven instruments aboard LRO
We on the LRO Diviner team are looking forward to the LCROSS impact with great anticipation. It's not every day that we will have an opportunity to excavate a significant volume of material from one of the moon's permanently shadowed polar cold traps. We expect that a new lunar impact crater will form, and that dust, rock, and possibly cold-trapped volatile materials such as water ice will be thrown into space.
Everything we learn about the LCROSS impact will come from Earth observations and from observations from nearby spacecraft. Diviner will get excellent views of the impact site as LRO flies by. We intend to make maps of the radiometric temperature of the impact site before and after the impact, as well as observations of the dust plume that will be lofted during the impact event. Diviner's observations may help confirm the location of the LCROSS impact, and its effects on the impact on the surrounding terrain. Diviner has already mapped the impact site on previous orbits and so any changes that are detected will be of great interest. We have no idea what LCROSS will uncover, but we're anxious to know the results.
Diviner has acquired the first global daytime and nighttime thermal
maps of the moon. These maps were assembled using Diviner data obtained during
August and the first half of September, 2009. Credit: NASA/GSFC/UCLA
- A New Look at an Old Neighbor
- Posted on Oct 07, 2009 09:05:30 PM | NASA's New Moon Missions
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We have yet to uncover the full wealth of scientific information the moon holds. It at the cornerstone of understanding the birth and evolution of Earth and other planets, therefore we need to explore it.
The moon looks very unchanging and calm in the night sky and is rarely thought of as an active planetary body. What most people don't know, is the moon receives LCROSS-sized impacts about once a week -- that's more than 50 impacts a year! It also is interesting to note that it experiences thousands of "moonquakes" each year and releases energy by heat flow, electromagnetic conduction and tides from Earth and the Sun.
Moon's Copernicus Crater -- Lunar Orbiter Photo 1966 (Credit: NASA)
Craters of interest around the lunar south pole. LCROSS is targeting Cabeus A.
(Credit: NMSU/MSFC Tortugas Observatory)
- It's Almost Time!
- Posted on Oct 05, 2009 03:48:42 PM | NASA's New Moon Missions
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It's almost time!
It's been over three months since the Atlas V soared from Cape Canaveral, Fla. into space carrying the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite ("LCROSS" for short). Now it's finally time for LCROSS to do its things and get up close and personal with the moon.
An artist's interpretation of NASA's LCROSS spacecraft observing the first
impact of its rocket booster's Centaur upper stage before heading in for its
own crash into the moon's south pole. Credit: NASAOn Oct. 9 beginning at 6:30 a.m. CDT, the LCROSS spacecraft and heavier Centaur upper stage rocket will execute a series of procedures to separately hurl themselves toward the lunar surface to create a pair of debris plumes that will be analyzed for the presence of water ice. The Centaur is aiming for the Cabeus crater near the moon's south pole and scientist expect it to kick up approximately ten kilometers (6.2 miles) of lunar dirt from the crater's floor.
Image of NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility. Credit: NASA 
Earth-based radar image of the North Pole of the Moon, showing the position of the crater
Erlanger (arrow). Photo: Arecibo Observatory and NASA
These images show a very young lunar crater on the side of the moon that faces away
from Earth, as viewed by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on the Indian Space
Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Image credit: NASA
Astronaut James Irwin, lunar module pilot, gives a military salute while standing
beside the deployed U.S. flag during the Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular
activity (EVA) at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. Credit: NASA
W.M. Keck Observatory and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility with Haleakala on
Maui in the distance as seen at sunset from Mauna Kea. Credit: John Fischer
- It's Been Worth the Wait!
- Posted on Jul 17, 2009 08:46:28 PM | NASA's New Moon Missions
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As a 30 year-old research assistant at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, I have a unique perspective of the Apollo missions. I was not alive when humans last walked on the moon; the Apollo missions were part of my parents' generation. With live televised coverage from the lunar surface and glossy photo spreads in magazines, places like Tranquility Base, the Descartes Highlands, and Fra Mauro became familiar during the Apollo program. However after the final Apollo mission left the moon, many forgot these significant lunar landmarks. That changes today. With the amazing images of the Apollo landing sites taken through NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the Apollo landing sites are once again significant for today's generation.
The Apollo landing sites are no longer simply historic sites revealed through 40 year-old images taken by the Apollo astronauts. Instead, they are dynamic landscapes that can be seen in a new light through LRO. These special areas on the moon now have a new life, with the help of a reminder that 40 years ago humans spent days exploring the surface of our neighbor in space.
For me, these photos have an additional dimension as they remind me of why I've always been interested in the moon. In the mid 1960s my father worked on the Apollo program, building parts for the astronauts' backpacks, known as the Portable Life Support Systems (PLSS). At the end of each lunar landing mission, in order to reduce the mass launched into lunar orbit, the astronauts would toss the PLSS' onto the lunar surface; they were left behind and quickly forgotten. However, those who built the PLSS did not forget them. Before the packs were finished and shipped off, the engineers would etch their signatures on parts of the PLSS frame. So when the packs were left on the moon, the signatures also remained as a permanent monument to their achievements. So now when I look at these amazing photos, I can't see those backpacks in these images, future images of the sites may show them, but I do see places where my dad's name will be found forever.
This photo from the Apollo 17 mission shows the Portable Life Support Systems
backpack that Noah's father worked on in the foreground. (NASA)
- Is the Moon a Planet,Too?
- Posted on Jul 10, 2009 10:01:34 AM | NASA's New Moon Missions
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Lunar scientist Barbara Cohen explains how our moon functions very much like a planet.
You've all probably heard about the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decision to define a planet -- probably because it clarified that there is a big belt of icy objects out beyond the orbit of Neptune, and we now know that Pluto is one of thousands of them. The IAU definition also excludes moons from being planets. But did you know our moon functions like a planet? It has a lot to teach us about how planets form and evolve.
Solar system rendering of the eight planets. (Image credit: Koolang Astronomical
Observatory and Science Display Center)
View more blog imagesLike the Earth, our moon has a crust, a mantle and a core. These interior layers we think are present on most planets, even if the crust is made of rock or ice. Mars probably has a crust, mantle, and core, and so do Venus and Mercury. The rocks we brought back from the moon from the Apollo missions helped us learn that this process of forming internal layers, or differentiation, is a common process on all planets. So when the moon formed, it formed like a planet.
Another hallmark of planets is that they have active geology. The big, dark splotches you see on the moon’s surface are lava flows. Yes, there were active volcanoes on the moon. There aren’t any volcanic cones, because the lava was very fluid and flowed out through cracks and into low-lying areas. The Apollo samples contain small beads of volcanic glass that tell us there were giant fire-fountains on the moon too. Though volcanic activity on the moon ended about 3 billion years ago, the Apollo missions picked up thousands of earthquakes on the moon, or moonquakes. Moonquakes tell us that the moon is not geologically dead. It's still acting like a planet today.
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. (Image credit: Photo Credit: National Park Service) My favorite part about planets is their impact craters, formed when asteroids or comets whizz into our part of space and collide. When you look at the moon, you can see that it preserves many impact craters on it for researchers like me to study. Did you know that all the craters you see on the moon (and there are hundreds of thousands of them!) had counterparts on the Earth at one point? We don't see many impact craters on Earth today because the Earth's crust continually renews itself and erases old rocks and formations. No one rock on Earth is older than 4 billion years. The Earth definitely got beat up by impacts from comets and asteroids in its past -- and that record is preserved for us to study on the moon.
For me, the best thing about the moon is that it may not be defined as a planet, but it definitely acts like one. Studying the moon allows us to learn about how all planets work. And because the moon is ancient, it's like a time capsule back into the early days of our solar system. But, I also love that the moon looks so beautiful reflecting sunlight to us on dark nights and I can't wait to get more information from our two lunar missions. Godspeed LRO and LCROSS!
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