Lunar Prospector

Lunar Prospector (LP) (Andolz, 1998; Binder, 1998) was a spin-stabilized spacecraft, operating in a 100 km circular, polar orbit around the Moon during its Primary Mission in 1998. The orbit was lowered to 30 km for the Extended Mission that began in January 1999. The mission ended on July 31, 1999, when the spacecraft was targeted to impact a crater near the lunar south pole to try to vaporize part of the suspected water deposits.

The science goals of LP were to map the Moon's surface composition and its magnetic and gravity fields, to determine the frequency and location of gas release events, and to search for polar ice deposits. To meet these objectives, LP had five science instruments (Feldman et al., 2004) located on three booms: a Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), a Neutron Spectrometer (NS), an Alpha Particle Spectrometer (APS), a Magnetometer (MAG), and an Electron Reflectometer (ER). In addition, Doppler tracking data was used to derive gravity measurements. The three spectrometers determined the composition and evolution of the lunar surface to a depth of more than ten centimeters. The GRS mapped crustal composition, the APS sensed volatile release activity, and the NS mapped hydrogen distribution. The spatial resolution of the three spectrometers was about 200 km at the nominal LP mapping altitude of 100 km, and about 60 km at the low altitude orbit of 30 km. The MAG/ER produced a high resolution map of the lunar magnetic field, and the spacecraft’s downlink carrier signal was examined for gravity-induced Doppler shifts from which a high resolution global gravity map was generated. More information about the LP mission can be found in the following documents:

  • Andolz, F.J. (1998), Lunar Prospector Mission Handbook, Document No. LMMS/P458481, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Company, 63p [URL: https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/lunarp/schandbk.pdf].

  • Binder, Alan B. (1998), Lunar Prospector: Overview: Science, Vol. 281, pp. 1475-1476.

  • Feldman, W.C., K. Ahola, B.L. Barraclough, R.D. Belian, R.K. Black, R.C. Elphic, D.T. Everett, K.R. Fuller, J. Kroesche, D.J. Lawrence, S.L. Lawson, J.L. Longmire, S. Maurice, M.C. Miller, T.H. Prettyman, S.A. Storms, G.W. Thornton (2004), The Gamma-Ray, Neutron, and Alpha-Particle Spectrometers for the Lunar Prospector Mission, J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 109, E07S06, doi:10.1029/2003JE002207.

  • Lunar Prospector Spacecraft Handbook

More information can be found on the PDS Geosciences Node Lunar Prospector page.

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