Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - Payload

Payload

The orbiter carries a complement of six instruments and one technology demonstration:

• CRaTER—The primary goal of the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation is to characterize the global lunar radiation environment and its biological impacts.
• DLRE—The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment measures lunar surface thermal emission to provide information for future surface operations and exploration.
• LAMP—The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project peers into permanently shadowed craters in search of water ice, seeing by the ultraviolet light from stars and the interplanetary medium.
• LEND—The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector provides measurements, create maps, and detect possible near-surface water ice deposits.
• LOLA—The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter investigation provides a precise global lunar topographic model and geodetic grid.
• LROC—The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera addresses the measurement requirements of landing site certification and polar illumination. LROC comprises a pair of narrow-angle cameras (NAC) and a single wide-angle camera (WAC). LROC has flown several times over the historic Apollo lunar landing sites at 31 miles (50 km) altitude; with the camera's high resolution, the lunar rovers and Lunar Module descent stages and their respective shadows will be clearly visible, along with other equipment previously left on the Moon. The mission is returning approximately 70–100 Terabytes of image data. It is expected that this photography will boost public acknowledgement of the validity of the landings, and further discredit Apollo conspiracy theories.
• Mini-RF—The Miniature Radio Frequency radar demonstrated new lightweight SAR and communications technologies and located potential water-ice.