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

LRO Status July 18-19, 2009

Above STK images are of the start of the Star Cal and at target

LRO continues to perform very well in its commissioning orbit.

This weekend we performed LEND and LROC NAC Star Calibrations (see below STK images for the start of the Star Cal and at target). Data collection continues for all instruments, except for LAMP. LAMP Phase 2 will begin later this week.

Hope you all have seen and enjoyed LROC’s images of the Apollo Landing sites at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html
Or
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/index.html

Congratulations to our totally awesome LROC team for making history!! Congratulations to all on LRO!!

Cathy

Apollo Images from LRO!

At this site--> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html The one above is Apollo 14

Congratulations to the LROC Team and the entire LRO Team for making this possible!

First Mini-RF Images!

The first images from Mini-RF, the synthetic aperture radar on LRO, is posted here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/news/radar_tandem_searches.html

LRO Commisioning Orbit

For those interested in such things, LRO"s commissioning orbit remains very stable. The plot shows the phase-plot of the commissioning orbit for 90 days from the July 12th OD solution. The polar plot is Eccentricity (radial) vs Argument of Periapsis (angular). The orbit evolution remains bounded with AoP near 270 (periselene over south pole) and eccentricity is the neighborhood of 0.04. Eccentricity does very throughout each lunar cycle though.

LRO July 10-12 Status

The above STK image is of LRO on DOY 193

The LRO Spacecraft continues to perform nominally in its commissioning orbit.

On Friday, we updated the Safing tables and Safing RTSs as was planned prior to launch. Spacecraft ephemeris validation tables, ST and Gyro Cal tables were also uploaded.

With the Mini-RF data collection start on Sunday evening, all instruments have collected or are collecting data.

LRO Status

LRO continues in her commissioning phase in the 30x199km commissioning polar orbit about the Moon. Today was a relatively quiet day for LRO with activities limited to some spacecraft housekeeping activities and the as-planned operation of Diviner, LROC WAC, CRaTER, and LEND in data collection/observation mode. Mini-RF is off at present, LAMP is powered but not observing, and LOLA is on but not lasing.

Tomorrow we plan to upload updates to the spacecraft Safing tables and RTSs. An activity always planned for this juncture in the mission. Saturday NAC imaging is again planned with our first off-nadir slews to perform the requested targeting.

7 and 7!!!

Above is the STK image of LRO on DOY 189

Today we completed LAMP Activation Phase 1a. The LAMP team reports that they are “happy.” We set DLRE temperature set points to their requested values, the DLRE team reports that they are “happy, happy.” We also activated Mini-RF and they are “happy” as well.

The LRO Spacecraft continues to make the Ops and Engineering Teams "happy" too :-)

As of July 8, 2009, LRO has successfully turned-on all 7 instruments in its Payload Complement: CRaTER, LEND, LROC, LOLA, LAMP, DLRE and Mini-RF!!

Congratulations everyone!!

LAMP Activation Begun

Today we began the LAMP activation sequence and Diviner has begun its nominal scanning sequence.

LRO is in Orbit #150.

LRO's Great 4th of July Weekend

The above STK image is of LRO on DOY 186

LRO and it’s totally awesome team had a great 4th of July weekend!!

On July 4th, besides enjoying an awesome cookout at Building 32, we switched from Laser 1 to Laser 2 on LOLA and performed a HGA calibration.

On July 5th, we turned Diviner on, set LOLA to Flight Software Control, turned off Laser 2 on LOLA, and completed our last gyro calibration.

As of 12:50 pm EDT on July 5, 2009, LRO has 5 of its 7 instruments powered on - CRaTER, LEND, LROC, LOLA and DLRE. We are also on orbit 135 as of 3:30pm EDT.

Working hard for LRO,
Cathy and Rick

LROC Lunar Flyover Video

For folks who have not yet figured out that the most spectacular LRO information is currently to be found at on the LROC website, go check out this LRO flyover video.

Instrument Commissioning Phase Begins!

The above STK image is of LRO on DOY 184.

Today we officially began our Instrument Commissioning Phase. We held our first Daily Planning Meeting with all Instrument Teams and Subsystem representatives. LROC was turned on and is currently taking images, while LOLA Laser 1 is lasing for 24 hours. Our plan is to switch to Laser 2 tomorrow and start DLRE activation on Sunday.


The LRO Spacecraft continues to perform extremely well in her commissioning orbit.

LOLA Successfully Ranging to the Moon!

The LOLA laser altimeter laser was turned on today at 1pm EDT and LOLA has reported the instrument is successfully performing ranging measurements to the lunar surface! LOLA will now begin its calibration activities. Activation of the Diviner (DLRE) instrument is planned for Sunday.

1st LRO LROC Images!!

Go to the NASA LRO site to see them!

The NASA Press Release is below:

RELEASE: 09-152

NASA'S LRO SPACECRAFT SENDS FIRST LUNAR IMAGES TO EARTH

GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has
transmitted its first images since reaching lunar orbit June 23. The
spacecraft has two cameras -- a low resolution Wide Angle Camera and
a high resolution Narrow Angle Camera. Collectively known as the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, they were activated
June 30. The cameras are working well and have returned images of a
region a few kilometers east of Hell E crater in the lunar highlands
south of Mare Nubium.

As the moon rotates beneath LRO, LROC gradually will build up
photographic maps of the lunar surface. To view these first
calibration images, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov/lro


"Our first images were taken along the moon's terminator -- the
dividing line between day and night -- making us initially unsure of
how they would turn out," said LROC Principal Investigator Mark
Robinson of Arizona State University in Tempe. "Because of the deep
shadowing, subtle topography is exaggerated, suggesting a craggy and
inhospitable surface. In reality, the area is similar to the region
where the Apollo 16 astronauts safely explored in 1972. While these
are magnificent in their own right, the main message is that LROC is
nearly ready to begin its mission."

LRO will help NASA identify safe landing sites for future explorers,
locate potential resources, describe the moon's radiation environment
and demonstrate new technologies.

The satellite also has started to activate its six other instruments.
The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector will look for regions with
enriched hydrogen that potentially could have water ice deposits. The
Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation is designed to
measure the moon's radiation environment. Both were activated on June
19 and are functioning normally.

Instruments expected to be activated during the next week and
calibrated are the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, designed to build
3-D topographic maps of the moon's landscape; the Diviner Lunar
Radiometer Experiment, which will make temperature maps of the lunar
surface; and the Miniature Radio Frequency, or Mini-RF, an
experimental radar and radio transmitter that will search for
subsurface ice and create detailed images of permanently-shaded
craters.

The final instrument, the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project, will be
activated after the other instruments have completed their
calibrations, allowing more time for residual contaminants from the
manufacture and launch of LRO to escape into the vacuum of space.
This instrument is an ultraviolet-light imager that will use
starlight to search for surface ice. It will take pictures of the
permanently-shaded areas in deep craters at the lunar poles.

"Accomplishing these significant milestones moves us closer to our
goals of preparing for safe human return to the moon, mapping the
moon in unprecedented detail, and searching for resources," said LRO
Project Scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md.

While its instruments are being activated and tested, the spacecraft
is in a special elliptical commissioning orbit around the moon. The
orbit takes less fuel to maintain than the mission's primary orbit.
The commissioning orbit's closest point to the lunar surface is about
19 miles over the moon's south pole, and its farthest point is
approximately 124 miles over the lunar north pole.

After the spacecraft and instruments have completed their initial
calibrations, the spacecraft will be directed into its primary
mission orbit in August, a nearly-circular orbit about 31 miles above
the lunar surface.

Goddard built and manages LRO, a NASA mission with international
participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. Russia
provides the neutron detector aboard the spacecraft.

For more information about LRO's cameras and to view the first images,
visit:



http://lroc.sese.asu.edu

LRO Status 6/30/2009 7:05pm EDT

LRO continues to perform flawlessly in her commissioning orbit (30x199km). In addition to the High Gain Antenna and Gyro calibrations that continued today a number of notable accomplishments occurred today:

- LROC cameras turned on for a series of preliminary measurements in preparation for the planned first imaging July 3. All performance was nominal.

- LOLA electronics and detectors powered on (not the lasers). All telemetry was nominal.

- And with the LOLA detectors on we are now tracking LRO with the Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging System (NGSLR) laser system at the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory (GGAO) and have been since about 5:12 pm today! This is a major achievement and has never been done before (tracking a s/c in lunar orbit optically from Earth). We seem to be successful on every shot at 28Hz. Tomorrow we should be able to assess the ranging precision when we get all the data back and can start the analysis.

Successful LOLA Turn-on

The LOLA (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter) instrument was successfully powered on today at 11:25 am EDT and telemetry indicates that all is nominal thus far. This photo shows a happy LOLA team in the LRO Engineering Support Room. Congrats to the entire LOLA Team on this milestone!!

LRO Status 6/30/2009 9:00am EDT

Spacecraft commissioning has been proceeding with the major activities being the calibration of the High Gain Antenna System and the Gyros. This involves slewing the antenna and in the spacecraft in a series of motions to determine and then adjust for the remaining alignment errors that could not be determined on the ground in 1 g. We also have software table updates that we will load and test that we had planned for after completion of our LOI maneuvers. In parallel we are preparing for the activation of the instruments later this week and next week.

LRO Status 6/28/2009 2:15pm EDT

At about 2pm EDT a series of activities were completed that put LRO in lunar nadir pointing mode. The solar array is now tracking the sun and the spacecraft is flying with the +Z axis (instrument boresight direction) looking down at the lunar surface. Tomorrow we'll begin performing the High Gain Antenna and Gyro calibrations. LRO continues to perform flawlessly.

LRO in Commisioning Orbit about the Moon

At 8:34am EDT today LRO initiated LOI-5 which was a 230.8 second burn (36 m/s). This placed LRO in a 31x199km 90.2 degree inclination polar orbit. For those interested the orbital position of LRO after we acquired her on the ground when she came into view again is given in the telemetry screen snap. Please note ALL vectors are in the ECI coordinate system. Tomorrow we will transition LRO from solar-inertial pointing to lunar nadir pointing and begin spacecraft commissioning activities.

LOI-4 Successfully Completed

At 8:25am EDT today LRO executed LOI-4. This 10 minute propulsion burn placed LRO in a 200km circular polar orbit about the Moon. Now in this low circular orbit operations will begin to resemble our nominal mission with ground station passes coming and going on a regular frequency as we pass behind the Moon each orbit. During certain days every month the ground can see LRO for her entire orbit of the Moon. This is illustrated in the diagram above.

LRO Status 6/25/2009 8:30pm EST

A nominal day heading into our LOI-4 burn. We are in a 199x740km orbit with an inclination of 89.93 degrees. LOI-4 at 8:25am EDT tomorrow will put us in a 200km circular orbit.

Where's LRO? Available on LROC Homepage

Check it out, and the entire LROC homepage. http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/whereislro/

Links to homepages for all the LRO instruments can be found at the LRO GSFC website.

LOI 3 Burn Successfully Completed

At 06:32 am EDT, the LOI 3 burn was successfully conducted. The burn lasted for 12 minutes and placed LRO in a 2.58 hour orbit. Following the burn, a Delta-H momentum unload was performed.

A Delta-H maneuver is how LRO reduces its system angular momentum (H). Thrusters are fired in a manuver planned to reduce the reaction wheel speeds. At the moon LRO gains angular momentum from torques induced by gravity gradient effects, solar radiation pressure, and from the use of our thrusters for changes in velocity (orbit changes).

LOI 4 burn is scheduled for tomorrow at 8:25am EDT.

LRO Status 6/23/2009 6:35pm EDT

Since the LOI-2 burn the mission has unfolded per our planned timeline without any anomalies. At this point in the day the planning process for the upcoming LOI-3 burn has begun. LOI-3 will be at 6:32am EDT and lasts 13 minutes. This burn is the next in our series of 5 burns to place LRO in the commissioning orbit. The commissioning orbit is 30x216 km and is a quasi-frozen orbit which requires almost no fuel to maintain. In contrast our 50km circular nominal mission orbit requires about 90kg of fuel each year to maintain.

About a week and half after reaching the commissioning orbit we will begin activating the remaining instruments and start calibrating them. These have not been turned on yet for a number of reasons. First, the insertion at the Moon is a critical and time constrained phase of the mission and the prime focus is safely delivering LRO into the right orbit. Secondly, the instruments (except the radiation instruments which are already on) are not designed to yield very useful or interesting data from anywhere except LRO's planned orbits. The cameras in particular are designed to build their images as the lunar surfaces passes through their FOV at ~1.6 km/s as LRO orbits the Moon. They cannot be simply pointed at the moon or earth during our transit to the Moon and snap a photo. To better understand the line-array (NACs) and push-frame (WAC) camera designs an overview paper on LRO's instrument is available at http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/library.html

LOI 2 Burn Successfully Completed

We have successfully completed the LOI 2 burn. All systems remain nominal. The burn lasted 12 minutes and has placed LRO in a 200x1680km above the Moon. 3 more burns remain to lower LRO into its 30x216 km commisioning orbit

LRO Status 5:00pm EDT 6/23/2009

LRO remains in orbit around the Moon. Everything continues to unfold according to our timeline with the exception of a transition to Sun-Safe Mode (safe-mode for LRO) at 11:50 am when AP22 (Action Point for Attitude Error) tripped. This was diagnosed as being caused by a bad Star tracker solution due to partial occultation by the Moon, the valid but incorrect quaternion caused the spacecraft to slew which in turn tripped AP22 due to attitude error. Normally the Kalman Filter would filter this out but at the time we were still checking out the Kalman Filter performance and were not yet controlling with it. By 12:28 pm EDT we were back in Observing Mode and by 2:00pm we had LEND and CRaTER back on. The GN&C team will issue a more complete report when the finish reviewing all the telemetry.

LOI-2 is scheduled for 6:56am on Wednesday 6/24/2009.

We are there!!!

We are in a 220knx3100km polar lunar orbit. Over the next 5 days LRO will execute 4 more burns to eventually place it in our 30km (south pole)x216km (north pole) commissioning orbit.

The LOI-1 was flawless, exactly as planned.

A very happy Team here at the MOC in Greenbelt.

passing 70% point

burn will end 6:26:28am EDT

About halfway, past stable capture (safe) point in burn

this means even if the burn is interrupted now we can make lunar orbit. We are past our zone of greatest danger!

everything going perfect, only 600km above the moon

below 1000 km

now a very long 40 minutes!

Burn in Progress!

final poll completed - all GO

non target for burn attitude, 5 min away

starting slew to burn attitude

LOI-1 will be at 5:47am EDT

We are less than an hour from the start of the LOI-1 burn. This 40 minute burn uses our main thrusters (4x80N) and will place us in a 200x3000km initial orbit. This is the most critical event in the LRO mission after launch itself. Timing is everything as if the burn is delayed or prematurely stopped the window for recovery (via ground intervention) is measured in minutes. The team has practiced our recovery procedures and prepared for this event perhaps more than any other single event in their life.

The spacecraft is ready. My team is ready. GO LRO

See us live: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Latest STK image

here's the latest STK image of where LRO is...

LRO LOI Event Live on NASA TV

Live coverage of our Lunar Orbit Insertion activities begin on NASA TV at 5am EDT. Also check it out at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Where is LRO now?

from our GNC gurus LRO Cam, here's the latest snapshot of where LRO is....check it out, we are getting closer to the Moon!!

Successful LOI-E Burn!!

We have just successfully completed our Lunar Orbit Insertion Engineering (LOI-E) burn!! All systems continue to perform nominally. Preparations continue for our LOI-1 burn.

LRO Launch from the LRO MOC at GSFC

The LRO Mission Operations Team at the LRO Mission Operations Center (MOC) at Goddard Space Flight Center watching LRO's launch and taking over operations of the LRO Spacecraft as it begins its journey to the moon.

LRO Update

LRO has slowed to a crawl relative to the earth (245 m/s,547 mph) and it at essentially lunar distance (352000km,219000mi) When the moon catches up to us early tomorrow morning we'll execute our LOI-1 burn to capture into our initial orbit.

A note to those leaving comments: This BLOG is updated by the LRO Project Manager and his Deputy at this point. Unfortunately neither of us have time to moderate and reply/respond/post the comments. I do read them as they flow through my inbox but for now that is as far as they go. Sorry.

LRO Status & Upcoming Events

The preliminary work leading to our LOI has begun. All spacecraft systems are healthy. Below is a timeline of key upcoming events:

6/22 10:33pm EDT - Final LOI Maneuver Plan Generation & Verification
6/22 11:05pm EDT - LOI-E (Engineering Burn ~30sec)
6/23 1:05am EDT - Load LOI-1 Maneuver Tables
6/23 4:00am EDT - Shift Handover Briefing
6/23 4:47am EDT - Pre-LOI-1 Configuration Verification Begins
6/23 5:47am EDT - LOI-1 Burn Begins
6/23 6:27am EDT - LOI-1 Burn Complete, LRO in lunar orbit
6/23-6/27 - LOI-2 thru LOI-5 burns, approximately one per day.
6/27 - 30x216km commissioning polar orbit established

B-I-G (Boring is Good)

Our new motto: B.I.G. "Boring is Good"....things continue to go smoothly as LRO cruises towards the moon. LRO is now 339, 838 km from the Earth. We are getting ready for the Lunar Orbit Insertion Engineering (LOI-E) burn which will occur in approximately 23 hours. We are also preparing for the LOI-1 burn which will occur in approximately 29 hours.

White Sands 1 (WS1) has successfully supported S and Ka-Band support for our mission. This is a great milestone with our new ground station enabling clean data transfer from the LRO spacecraft to the MOC at 100 Mbps. Also, solid commanding capability to our spacecraft as it cruises to the moon.

CRaTER, the 1st instrument to be turned on, is reporting good, solid data and has produced their 1st LET spectrum in all 6 detectors from the 1st 10 minutes of data received. LEND is now in their optimal configuration for LOI burns.

LRO Status 6/21/200 10:17am EDT

A calm and boring day thus far (this is good). Gyro mini-cal was completed. Another notable that actually occurred last night was a successful Ka-band file download to WS-1 at 100 Mbps! We are almost at lunar distance and have not yet even calibrated the High Gain Antenna System yet, an activity planned during spacecraft commissioning.

LRO Location

This plot shows the trajectories of LRO and the Moon relative to the Earth (ECI). LRO continues to slow relative to the earth and the moon is gaining on us, as planned.

Quiet Shift & Happy Father's Day!

LRO continues to cruise happily towards the moon. As of 07:30 GMT (3:30 EDT), LRO is 302, 978 km from the Earth.

It was a quiet shift for us, we continue LEND calibration configurations and station handover activities.

The Road Ahead for LRO & LCROSS

Relive LRO Launch

This link will take you to a ULA site with an excellent video of the launch.

http://www.ulalaunch.com/

LRO Mission Status 6/20/2009 11:45 EDT

Yesterday at 6:16pm, our mid-course correction burn was successfully
completed. The burn was 38 seconds long, changing the speed of the
spacecraft by 1.3 m/s (2.9 MPH)--less than 0.1%! The spacecraft
attitude control system performed beautifully, with minimal start-up
transient (about 0.5 degrees).

After MCC, we turned on the CRaTER and LEND instruments. Performance of
each instrument looks good. We adjusted the CRaTER thresholds based on
actual performance in the space environment, so we are all set to detect
high energy particles. Now we are stepping LEND through its different
configurations to optimize performance and characterize the background.

We have turned on decontamination heaters on the LRO Camera to drive out
moisture and any other volatiles before we turn on LROC.

And we have just finished powering on our Ka-band system and dumping
data at 25 Mbps (instead of 256 kbps on S-band--100 times faster). In
less than half an hour, we dumped 163 files from the spacecraft, while
we had only dumped 210 total on S-band since launch. This was the last
spacecraft component other than the instruments to get powered on.

LRO is 264,000 km (164,000 miles) from the earth traveling at 0.914 km/s
(2040 MPH). LRO has slowed down quite a bit, and we will continue to
slow down as we climb away from the earth on our ballistic trajectory.

LRO GNC's LroCam

Many thanks to Neerav Shah for this awesome image:
Here’s a cool screenshot of GNC’s in-house developed tool called LroCam. It’s during our current Gyro Cal slew. You’ll see a few different vectors – there are the (x,y,z) which represent the current attitude of the spacecraft. And there are the (x tgt, y tgt, z tgt) which represent the target attitude. For the –Y 30 degree slew you see that the ‘y’ and ‘y tgt’ match exactly while the x and z do not, indicating that the spacecraft is slewing.

LRO's orbit relative to Ground Stations

Many thanks to Jennifer Sager Cosgrove for these awesome displays!!
All data is based on actual real-time telemetry data – this is a 2-D window that shows LRO’s orbit relative to the ground stations (including DSN, GN and USN stations) on Earth.

LRO STK Display Post-MCC1

Many thanks to Jennifer Sager Cosgrove for these awesome displays!!
All STK data is based on actual real-time telemetry data and all windows displayed are 3-D
• This image represents the LRO spacecraft after MCC1.
• The yellow cone pointed at Earth represents the HGA S-band pointed at DSS24 ground station on Earth.
• The blue and purple cones represent ST1 and ST2 (Star Trackers 1 and 2).
• The large LRO ICR Axes view is a close up to the LRO spacecraft showing the SA pointed to the Sun, the HGA pointed at Earth, and various vectors (velocity, Moon, Earth and Sun vectors)
• The two smaller windows are showing where LRO is located relative to the Earth Moon system. The Earth Inertial Axes view shows LRO is about half way to the moon and shows the moons orbit around the Earth and LRO’s orbit relative to the lunar orbit including LRO’s lunar orbit insertion.

LRO Status at 171 04:40 GMT

Today at 6:16pm, our mid-course correction (MCC-1) burn was successfully completed. The burn was 38 seconds long. All systems operated nominally throughout the burn. FDF is collecting tracking data and preparing for LOI maneuver planning.

We have just completed LEND and CRaTER turn-on activities. 1st science files for CRaTER have been sent to the SOC for processing. 1st science files for LEND have been sent to the SOCs for processing. Transfer courtesy of DMS.

Later this evening we will be performing a mini-gyro calibration in preparation for LOI.

Special thanks to Laurie Leshin for stopping by this evening to feed the troops....we truly enjoyed the delicious pizzas!!

LRO is now 224,324 km from the Earth.