[meteorite-list] NASA to Host Media Teleconference on LADEE's Planned Moon Impact

[Ron Baalke]

April 1, 2014
     
NASA to Host Media Teleconference on Spacecraft's Planned Moon Impact

NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, April 3, to  
discuss the extended mission operations, additional science gathering, and  
planned impact in April of the agency's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment  
Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft into the lunar surface.

Launched in September 2013, LADEE successfully completed in March its 100-day  
prime science phase and is operating in an extended science phase.  
Instruments aboard the spacecraft will continue to make science observations  
and acquire data at progressively lower altitudes until the planned impact.

Scientists hope to address a long-standing question: Was lunar dust,  
electrically charged by sunlight, responsible for the pre-sunrise glow  
detected during several Apollo missions above the lunar horizon? LADEE also  
is gathering detailed information about the structure and composition of the  
thin lunar atmosphere.

A thorough understanding of these characteristics of our nearest celestial  
neighbor will help researchers understand other bodies in the solar system,  
such as large asteroids, Mercury, and the moons of outer planets.

Teleconference participants are:

-- Joan Salute, LADEE program executive, NASA Headquarters in Washington
-- Butler Hine, LADEE project manager, NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett  
Field, Calif.
-- Rick Elphic, project scientist, Ames

Media who want to participate in the teleconference should contact Dwayne  
Brown at dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov [1] or 202-358-1726 by 1:30 p.m. Thursday.  
Media representatives and the public also may ask questions via Twitter using  
the hashtag #AskNASA.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio 

For more information about the LADEE mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ladee 

-end-

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-0643
rachel.hoover at nasa.gov