Washington - NASA was in the final countdown Thursday before
launching a dual moon mission intended to pave the way for humans to
return to the moon.
Launch was set for 2112 from Florida's Cape Canaveral, where the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and
Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) are to blast off aboard a single rocket.
The launch is the first step to implementing NASA's new space
drive back to the moon. Next year, NASA will retire the ageing, 27-
year-old shuttle programme that has built the space station and
maintained the orbiting deep space telescope, the Hubble.
The moon, untouched since the manned landings of the late '60s and
early '70s, would eventually serve as a jumping-off platform for
exploring Mars, according to NASA's long-term objectives as set by
former president George W Bush.
Thursday's two moon-bound craft are to send data back to NASA
to help scientists find the best location for a manned spacecraft
landing. The question of whether there is water on the moon, in the
form of ice deep inside its craters, is key to the mission.
The LRO will immediately start orbiting the moon for about a year,
taking the most detailed images yet of the lunar surface, creating
three-dimensional maps that are accurate to within one metre, showing
details as small as boulder. It will measure radiation on the surface
to scout for possible dangers to astronauts.
The LCROSS will focus on determining whether water could be hidden
in the shadowy craters of the moon near its poles. An earlier lunar
satellite found high levels of hydrogen in the atmosphere near the
poles, a hint that water could be present.
LCROSS's mission is to loop back around Earth and position itself
around the moon so it can crash into a deep moon crater in about 110
days. The cloud of dust will be measured by a second, trailing
device that will transmit its information to Earth and also crash
into the moon.
The total event will last just 120 seconds, but scientists say the
impact will provide valuable information to be collected on nine
instruments, including five cameras that capture images in colour,
thermal and near infrared images.
Images of the impact will also be captured by the orbiting LRO, as
well as the Hubble Space Telescope and other telescopes on Earth. The
composition of the material kicked up by the impact will help
scientists deduce whether water is present.
But more low-tech instruments will also be able to see the impact,
which should be visible to amateur stargazers using standard
telescopes. NASA also plans to stream the images live on its website.
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