[meteorite-list] New NASA Ames Spacecraft to Look for Ice at Lunar South Pole

[Ron Baalke]

John Bluck                                  April 10, 2006
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: (650) 604-5026 / 9000
E-mail: jbluck at mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 06-21AR

NEW NASA AMES SPACECRAFT TO LOOK FOR ICE AT LUNAR SOUTH POLE

NASA today announced that a small, 'secondary payload' spacecraft, to 
be developed by a team  at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, 
Calif., has been selected to travel to the moon to look for precious 
water ice at the lunar south pole in October 2008.

The smaller secondary payload spacecraft will travel with the Lunar 
Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) satellite to the moon on the same 
rocket, the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), to be launched 
from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The NASA Ames team proposed the 
secondary payload mission, which will be carried out by the Lunar 
CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS).

"The LCROSS mission gives the agency an excellent opportunity to 
answer the question about water ice on the moon," said Daniel Andrews 
of NASA Ames, whose team proposed the LCROSS mission. "We think we 
have assembled a very creative, highly innovative mission, turning 
the upper stage of the rocket that brought us to the moon into a 
substantial impactor on the moon."

After launch, the secondary payload LCROSS spacecraft will arrive in 
the lunar vicinity independent of the LRO satellite. On the way to 
the moon, the LCROSS spacecraft's two main parts, the Shepherding 
Spacecraft (S-S/C) and the Earth Departure Upper Stage (EDUS), will 
remain coupled.

As the spacecraft approaches the moon's south pole, the upper stage 
will separate, and then will impact a crater in the south pole area. 
A plume from the upper stage crash will develop as the Shepherding 
Spacecraft heads in toward the moon. The Shepherding Spacecraft will 
fly through the plume, and instruments on the spacecraft will analyze 
the cloud to look for signs of water and other compounds. Additional 
space and Earth-based instruments also will study the 
2.2-million-pound (1000-metric-ton) plume.

"The LCROSS mission will help us determine if there is water hidden 
in the permanently dark craters of the moon's south pole," said 
Marvin (Chris) Christensen, Robotic Lunar Exploration Program (RLEP) 
manager, and acting director of NASA Ames. "If we find substantial 
amounts of water ice there, it could be used by astronauts who later 
visit the moon to make rocket fuel," Christensen added.

Earlier, NASA had requested proposals internally from its NASA field 
centers for existing or reasonably matured concepts for secondary 
payloads that would offer cost-effective contributions to RLEP.

To prepare for the return of astronauts to the moon, NASA will 
conduct various RLEP robotic missions from 2008 to potentially 2016 
to study, to map and to learn about the lunar surface. These early 
missions will help determine lunar landing sites and whether 
resources, such as oxygen, hydrogen and metals, are available for use 
in NASA's long-term lunar exploration objectives.

"Establishing research stations on the moon will give us the 
experience and capabilities to extend to Mars and beyond," noted 
robotics deputy program manager Butler Hine of Ames.

"An exploration science program with a sustained human presence on 
the moon gives us the opportunity to conduct fundamental science in 
lunar geology, history of the solar system, physics and the 
biological response to partial (Earth) gravity," said Christopher 
McKay, lunar exploration program scientist at Ames.

The space agency specified that the winning proposal must demonstrate 
an affordable concept beneficial to RLEP, according to the document 
that asked NASA centers to submit suggestions for the secondary 
payload. NASA noted that the secondary payload mission should cost no 
more than $80 million. NASA also required that the payload mass not 
exceed 2,205 pounds (1,000 kilograms).

NASA encouraged its field centers to team with industry to develop 
proposals. On Jan. 10, NASA issued a request for information to 
industry to allow businesses to provide secondary payload concepts to 
NASA. Each NASA center reviewed ideas from industry as well as 
secondary payload concepts developed internally.

NASA asked that the concepts advance the Vision for Space Exploration 
to include missions that evolve lunar science, characterize the lunar 
environment and support identification sites for future human 
missions as well as the utility of those sites.

The space agency said that it was looking for missions that 
demonstrate technology that could enhance future exploration, that 
show operational schemes to support exploration, that develop or 
emplace infrastructure in support of exploration, that advance 
commercial opportunities and those missions that would collect 
engineering data to support the Constellation program. That program 
is developing NASA's new spaceship, the Crew Exploration Vehicle.

For images related to the LCROSS mission, please visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2006/lunarorbiter.html

For additional high-resolution images of the and historic 
information, please visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2004//.html,
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/,
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunarprosp.html, and
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast31jul99_1.htm

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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