F.A.Q. Lunar Prospector Launch Vehicle Scientists Mission Control Ames Research Center Discovery Program

The Lunar Prospector Spacecraft [ QTVR of Lunar Prospector (real), 345KB | QTVR of Lunar Prospector (model), 2.1MB ] Lunar Prospector is the first competitively selected and third to launch in a series of missions in NASA's recently implemented Discovery program. This program was developed to produce frequent, low-cost missions to explore the Solar System. Lunar Prospector is a simple and reliable spin-stabilized spacecraft. It rotates around its own central axis in order to control its orientiation en route to the Moon. Prospector is small -- when full of fuel, the spacecraft weighs only 295 kg (650 lb). That's about a quarter as heavy as an average-sized car! It will carry a small payload of only five instruments. Like all Discovery missions, Prospector progressed rapidly from development to completion and testing phases -- the entire process was accomplished in a period of only 22 months. One of the features that speeded the process along is the fact that, where feasible, the spacecraft was manufactured from "off-the-shelf," flight-proven hardware. From an engineering perspective, a spin-stabilized spacecraft like Prospector is inexpensive to design and simple to operate. During its one-year polar orbiting mission, Lunar Prospector will have the exciting and exacting task of sleuthing some of the Moon's remaining mysteries, including whether or not water ice is buried inside the lunar crust. Besides water, Lunar Prospector will look for other natural resources, such as minerals and gases, that could be used to build and sustain a future human lunar base or in manufacturing fuel for launching spacecraft from the Moon to the rest of the Solar System. Lunar Prospector with the Trans- Lunar Injection (TLI) stage Lunar Prospector, using its Gamma Ray Spectrometer, will collect a large amount of scientific data that will help researchers understand the chemical composition of the lunar surface. Some of the spacecraft's prospecting tools, or scientific instruments, will also measure the Moon's magnetic and gravitational fields, enhancing our current understanding as well as potentially enabling future mission scientists to design more fuel-efficient journeys to the Moon. In addition, Prospector will carry a special instrument, called an Alpha Particle Spectrometer, that will sniff out small quantities of gases that leak out from the lunar interior. Collectively, the scientific data that Prospector will send back to Earth will help researchers construct a more complete and detailed map of our nearest planetary neighbor, the Moon. KEY PERSONNEL: NASA Mission Manager G. Scott Hubbard, NASA Ames Research Center NASA Deputy Mission Manager Sylvia Cox, NASA Ames Research Center Project Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Binder, Lunar Research Institute Project Manager Thomas A. Dougherty, Lockheed Martin