Who's Orbiting the Moon?
- From: baalke@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:19:25 -0800 (PST)
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/20feb_orbitingthemoon.htm
Who's Orbiting the Moon?
NASA Science News
Februrary 20, 2008
February 20, 2008: The space around Earth is a busy place, as teeming
with traffic as a roundabout. More than 500 active satellites are
bustling about up there right now. Some are transmitting radio,
television, and telephone signals; others are gathering information
about Earth's atmosphere and weather; still others are helping people
navigate down here; and the rest are conducting space research.
Soon the space around the moon will be busy too. China, Japan, India,
Russia, and the US either have sent or plan to send satellites there
for a bird's-eye view of lunar features and resources.
Why is the moon such a draw?
For one thing, it's there - close by. We can see it better than we can
see anything else in space. And it's reachable, even by countries
whose
space programs are in their infancy. It represents a grand first step
for them.
Indeed, two of those nations are already there: Japan and China are
orbiting the moon right now.
Japan's Kaguya spacecraft, formerly known as SELENE, reached the moon
in
October 2007. Its mission: to make detailed maps of the moon's
surface,
to search for water (a key resource for future human landings) frozen
in
deep craters, and to study the moon's gravitational field.
Barbara Cohen, a lunar scientist and self-described "lunatic" at
NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center, says "Kaguya is the Cadillac of missions
right now. It is huge, consisting of three separate satellites, and
has
excellent instruments. It will do a lot of particles and fields work
that no other currently planned orbiter will do. Plus it will be able
to
train all its instruments toward the same spot on the moon
simultaneously."
Kaguya's main satellite carries 13 science instruments, including an
HDTV (high-definition TV) camera, which is sending back incredible
images of lunar landscapes stretching into the distance like an open
road and Earth rising over the lunar horizon:
Barely a month after Japan reached the moon, China followed suit:
China's Chang'e-1 spacecraft entered lunar orbit on November 5, 2007.
During its 1-year mission, it will map the moon by taking
three-dimensional images of the entire lunar surface. This satellite
will send back the first detailed pictures of some areas near the
poles
where water ice is most likely to be found.
Chang'e-1 is the first in a series of three Chinese spacecraft:
Chang'e-2 will be a lander with a rover, and Chang'e-3 will return
moon
samples to Earth. The Chinese hope someday to send humans to build a
lunar outpost, but for now they're focusing on gathering knowledge and
experience step-by-step.
Later this year India plans to send its own Chandrayaan-1 probe to
orbit
the moon. In Sanskrit, "Chandrayaan" means "Moon Craft." A
NASA-sponsored instrument, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, will ride along
and use an infrared spectrometer to survey the lunar terrain and give
us
a highly detailed picture of mineral locations. Chandrayaan-2, planned
for 2010 or 2011, will place a robotic rover on the moon. The rover
will
wheel around on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks,
do
chemical analysis, and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above.
NASA is very much a part of this "Great Moon Rush." Later this year,
the
agency plans to launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a
spacecraft bristling with instruments to map the moon and locate key
resources ranging from water to building materials.
"The LRO mission will provide the best resolution images - at about 50
cm per pixel - out of all the instruments currently headed to the
moon,"
says Cohen. "This means we will be able to see rocks that are about
two
feet in diameter. This lets us look at potential landing sites to
assess
the terrain and hazards for a human return. LRO will also have an
instrument that flies 'tissue-equivalent plastic' to assess radiation
damage to human skin." (Readers, stay tuned for a series of upcoming
Science@NASA stories about LRO and its capabilities.)
In 2011 NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL,
will
peer deep inside the moon to reveal its anatomy and history. This
mission, part of NASA's Discovery Program, will fly twin spacecraft
around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in
great
detail and answer questions about how Earth and other planets in our
solar system formed.
Both LRO and GRAIL will provide valuable information to help plan for
a
human US return to the moon in the next decade.
The US has already been there, you say? True, but we didn't stay long
enough to do much more than scratch the moon's surface, literally. The
pull to return is strong. Dr. Wesley Huntress, lunar advocate and
Director Emeritus of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical
Laboratory,
says it best:
"... many nations with emerging space programs have the moon in their
sights. There will be a renaissance in lunar scientific exploration in
the next several decades that the US will not want to miss. The pull
of
the moon to emerging space programs around the world can be a catalyst
for a new era of space exploration; one of international
cooperation1 ...."
No return would be complete without an original lunar pioneer: Russia.
After racing to the moon in the 1970s, the USSR virtually abandoned
lunar exploration. Russian scientists nevertheless continued to look
longingly toward that silver orb in the night sky, recognizing its
great
worth for research. Now, the Russian space program, with an eye toward
an outpost in the distant future, may launch its Luna-Glob project
within the next several years. Plans include an orbiter that will
deploy
13 probes, including penetrators and a lander, to answer questions
about
the moon's origin and search for water ice.
"There is a fair bit of overlap among missions, but this is okay in
science," adds Cohen. "We will get more coverage and better resolution
by being able to add together data from similar instruments. This is
partly by design. NASA doesn't want an over-reliance on other
countries
to collect the data necessary for a human return to the moon. What if
another country canceled its commitment to fly or their spacecraft
failed? We rather fly our own missions with our own instruments to
make
sure we get our basic data, and then we definitely collaborate with
other countries and missions to share, refine and improve the data."
How long will it take for the moon to be encircled with satellite
traffic like Earth? Not very long, with the current moon rush. By the
end of 2011, nine satellites could be buzzing around up there. That's
a
pretty good start.
.
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