Mission
Developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, LRO is a large (1,900 kg) and sophisticated spacecraft planned to fly in a lunar polar orbit for a mission of one Earth year. An optional extended phase of the mission (up to five years) could provide a communications relay for future lunar ground missions, such as a Moon lander or rover.
After completing a preliminary design review in February 2006 and a critical design review in November 2006, the LRO was shipped from Goddard Space Flight Center to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on 11 February 2009. Launch was planned for October 2008, but this slid to April as the spacecraft underwent testing in a thermal vacuum chamber. Launch was rescheduled for June 17, 2009 because of the delay in a priority military launch, and happened one day later, on June 18. The one-day delay was to allow the Space Shuttle Endeavour a chance to lift off for mission STS-127 following a hydrogen fuel leak that canceled an earlier planned launch.
Areas of investigation include:
- Selenodetic global topography.
- Characterization of deep space radiation in lunar orbit.
- The lunar polar regions, including possible water ice deposits and the lighting environment. The lunar polar regions experience temperatures of −223 °C (−369.4 °F) and may be able to hold water ice.
- High-resolution mapping (max 0.5 metres (1.6 ft)) to assist in the selection and characterization of future landing sites.
In addition, LRO has provided some of the first images of leftover Apollo equipment on the Moon.
Read more about this topic: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
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—William McKinley (1843–1901)
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—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)
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—Lydia M. Child (1802–1880)