LRO Observes LCROSS Impact!

LRO Status
LRO continues to operate as planned in the 50 km nominal mission orbit post MOI with no significant open issues or problems.

In addition this week LRO operations were focused on supporting the LCROSS lunar impact today. Earlier in the week LRO adjusted its orbit to prepare to observe the impact ejecta plume. The necessary maneuvers were practiced throughout the week and LRO successfully observed the impact plume after the LCROSS impact. LRO was rolled 81 degrees to view the plume at LRO’s closest approach (76.5 km to impact site). The LAMP instrument (UV spectrometer) has already confirmed detection of the ejecta plume and has begun analyzing the their data. The Diviner instrument (Imaging Radiometer) has confirmed they have detected the LCROSS impact crater.

Congratulations to our sister mission!!

LRO Mission Orbit Insertion Completed!

Today at 3:32pm ET today LRO executed a 3 minute propulsion burn near the periselene of our last commissioning phase orbit. This placed LRO in a 50 km (mean) circular polar orbit about the Moon. With this maneuver LRO has begun its primary 1 year Exploration mission.

Below is a paste of the NASA Media Advisory announcing the upcoming LRO First Light press conference this Thursday.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M09-174

NASA TO RELEASE FIRST RESULTS FROM LUNAR MISSION THURSDAY, SEPT. 17

GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA will showcase new images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's seven instruments and provide updates about the topography of the moon's south pole during a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 17. NASA also will provide an update about the spacecraft's status and mission plans. The briefing will take place at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site.

Panelists are:
-- Craig Tooley, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter project manager, Goddard Space Flight Center
-- Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- Richard Vondrak, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter project scientist, Goddard
-- David Smith, Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter principal investigator, Goddard

To RSVP or to participate by telephone, reporters should contact Rani Gran at 301-286-2483 by noon Sept. 17.

Reporters attending the event at Goddard should sign in at the center's main gate by 12:30 p.m. Thursday. The gate is located at 8800 Greenbelt Rd. in Greenbelt. NASA representatives will be available to escort reporters from the gate to the event.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information,
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

LRO Completion of Commissioning

A review was held yesterday, September 9th, during which it was verified LRO is ready to proceed to the 50km polar mapping orbit and begin the prime mission. On September 15th LRO will execute the Mission Orbit Insertion (MOI) propulsive maneuver and establish the nominal mission orbit. LRO is ready to begin the prime mission, the spacecraft, the instruments, and the ground system are performing flawlessly!

Upcoming next week NASA will hold a "First Light" LRO press conference. Watch for the NASA media advisory which will have the details. Once announced it will also be posted here.

LRO is also preparing to support the LCROSS impact on October 9th, having already providing observations and data to aid in the final LCROSS target selection.

LRO Videos Available

Aloha LRO Team and Fans – now posted to the Goddard Multimedia website are 11 videos, various views of the LRO/LCROSS launch, in several different formats for your viewing pleasure 

Also posted is brand new footage of the LRO Project Team at GSFC’s Mission Operations Center (MOC) and Launch Support Room (LSR) before, during, and post launch on June 18th….you all totally ROCKED!!

Check them all out at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010400/a010469/

LRO to Perform Bi-Static Radar Experiment with Chandrayaan-1

On Aug. 20, 2009 NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will attempt a novel joint experiment that could yield more information on whether ice exists in a permanently shadowed crater near the north pole of the moon. Currently the ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft are orbiting the moon. While LRO is in its commissioning phase the two spacecraft pass close enough to each other when they are over the lunar north pole to attempt a unique experiment. Both spacecraft are equipped with a NASA Miniature Radio Frequency (RF) instrument that functions as a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), known as Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1 and Mini-RF on LRO. The experiment uses both radars to point at Erlanger Crater at the same time.

Normally the Mini-RF Instrument sends radio pulses to the moon and precisely records the radio echoes that bounce straight back from the surface, along with their timing and frequency. From these data scientists can build images of the moon that not only show areas they otherwise couldn’t see, such as the permanently-shadowed areas near the lunar poles, but also contain information on the physical nature of the surface.
For the Bi-Static experiment the Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1 performs its normal SAR imaging (transmitting and receiving) while the Mini-RF is set to receive only. The two instruments look at the same location from different angles. Comparing the signal that bounces straight back to Chandrayaan with the signal that bounces at a slight angle to LRO provides unique information about the surface.

While this coordination sounds easy, this experiment is extremely challenging because both spacecraft are traveling at about 1.6 km per second and will be looking at an area on the ground about 18 km across. Due to the extreme speeds and the small point of interest, NASA and ISRO need to obtain and share information about the location and pointing of both spacecraft. The Bi-Static experiment requires extensive tracking by ground stations of NASA’s Deep Space Network, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and ISRO. In addition LRO will perform a 23 second propulsion burn today to adjust LRO orbit phasing to enable the coordinated observations.

The Mini-RF website will be the place to look for the first results of this experiment. The event is illustrated in the simulation below.

LRO Status

The LRO mission is now well past the halfway point of our commissioning phase during which we have been calibrating and testing the instruments. We now plan to lower our orbit down to the 50 km polar orbit on September 15th, 2009 and start the nominal mission.

We're at the Moon Event Video compilation

Aloha LRO Fans – Check out this awesome video compilation from Saturday’s “We’re at the Moon” Event:

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010400/a010475/index.html

Many thanks to Andy Freeberg for being videographer extraordinaire!!

Enjoy,
Cathy

An Awesome Weekend for LRO

Above photo is of Fans of LRO lining up to get a glimpse of the Moon and maybe LRO!

Aloha LRO Team! Congratulations to all of us for a totally awesomely successful weekend!

On Saturday night, the “We’re at the Moon” event held at the Goddard Visitor Center was a smashing success!! Many folks came out to celebrate with us and enjoy the LRO Project’s phenomenal success thus far. A Very Special Thank You to our Event Volunteers: Carmel Conaty, Trusilla Steele, Michelle Jones, Lora Bleacher, Heather Weir, Steph Stockman, Frank Ireton, Ron Zellar, Cindy Taylor, Rich Vondrak, Paul Lowman, Mark Beckman, Jan Mcgarry, Leigh Janes, Oscar Hsu, Rick Saylor, Maria Acevedo Rivera, and Nancy Neal Jones.

On Sunday, our LAMP instrument had its First Light. Congrats to our LAMP team!!

Rock on LRO!

Cathy