Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera mission support and geological studies of the lunar surface

Basic data for this project

Description

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is the first mission in NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, a plan to return to the Moon and then to travel to Mars and beyond. The LRO objectives are to find safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology.The spacecraft will be placed in low polar orbit (50 km) for one year under direction of the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), which oversees exploration technology development. LRO will return global data, such as day-night temperature maps, a global geodetic grid, high resolution color imaging and the moon's UV albedo. There is particular emphasis investigating the polar regions of the Moon, where there are areas continuously illuminated by the Sun and also areas lying in permanent shadow, where water ice might exist. Although the objectives of LRO are explorative in nature, the payload includes instruments with considerable heritage from previous planetary science missions. After the initial one-year mission, the orbit will be modified and will transition to a science phase under the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD).