[meteorite-list] LCROSS Impacts Lunar Crater in Search for Water Ice

[Ron Baalke]

Oct. 9, 2009

Grey Hautaluoma/Ashley Edwards 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-0668/1756 
grey.hautaluoma-1 at nasa.gov 
ashley.edwards-1 at nasa.gov 

Jonas Dino 
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 
650-604-5612 
jonas.dino at nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 09-236

NASA SPACECRAFT IMPACTS LUNAR CRATER IN SEARCH FOR WATER ICE

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing 
Satellite, or LCROSS, created twin impacts on the moon's surface 
early Friday in a search for water ice. Scientists will analyze data 
from the spacecraft's instruments to assess whether water ice is 
present. 

The satellite traveled 5.6 million miles during an historic 113-day 
mission that ended in the Cabeus crater, a permanently shadowed 
region near the moon's south pole. The spacecraft was launched June 
18 as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from 
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 

"The LCROSS science instruments worked exceedingly well and returned a 
wealth of data that will greatly improve our understanding of our 
closest celestial neighbor," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal 
investigator and project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in 
Moffett Field, Calif. "The team is excited to dive into data." 

In preparation for impact, LCROSS and its spent Centaur upper stage 
rocket separated about 54,000 miles above the surface of the moon on 
Thursday at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT. 

Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the Centaur hit 
the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. Oct. 9, creating an impact 
that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four 
minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m. 

"This is a great day for science and exploration," said Doug Cooke, 
associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission 
Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The LCROSS data 
should prove to be an impressive addition to the tremendous leaps in 
knowledge about the moon that have been achieved in recent weeks. I 
want to congratulate the LCROSS team for their tremendous achievement 
in development of this low cost spacecraft and for their perseverance 
through a number of difficult technical and operational challenges."‪ 


Other observatories reported capturing both impacts. The data will be 
shared with the LCROSS science team for analysis. The LCROSS team 
expects it to take several weeks of analysis before it can make a 
definitive assessment of the presence or absence of water ice. 

"I am very proud of the success of this LCROSS mission team," said 
Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames. "Whenever this team 
would hit a roadblock, it conceived a clever work-around allowing us 
to push forward with a successful mission." 

The images and video collected by the amateur astronomer community and 
the public also will be used to enhance our knowledge about the moon. 


"One of the early goals of the mission was to get as many people to 
look at the LCROSS impacts in as many ways possible, and we 
succeeded," said Jennifer Heldmann, Ames' coordinator of the LCROSS 
observation campaign. "The amount of corroborated information that 
can be pulled out of this one event is fascinating." 

"It has been an incredible journey since LCROSS was selected in April 
2006," said Andrews. "The LCROSS Project faced a very ambitious 
schedule and an uncommonly small budget for a mission of this size. 
LCROSS could be a model for how small robotic missions are executed. 
This is truly big science on a small budget." 

For more information about the LCROSS mission, including images and 
video, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/lcross 
	
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