Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has studied the moon and its surroundings since 2009. The orbiter is a mission of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The mission’s main goal is to create maps of the moon that will help NASA plan future moon missions.
LRO has produced highly detailed three-dimensional maps of the moon’s surface. The orbiter’s laser altimeter measures the height of surface features, such as craters and ridges. It can also determine how rough, bright, and steep these features are. LRO also creates temperature maps of the moon. NASA mission planners use these maps to locate areas that are interesting to study, safe to land in, and practical to explore. Astronauts training for crewed moon missions study LRO maps to become familiar with the moon’s landmarks.
LRO also measures radiation around the moon. It carries radiation detectors as well as pieces of plastic that have similar characteristics to human muscle tissue. The detectors track how much radiation reaches the plastic. Scientists can study the effects of the radiation to learn how the same radiation might affect a person’s body.
Several of the orbiter’s instruments can detect the chemical makeup of dust and rocks on the surface or of gases just above the surface. Mission planners are interested in identifying areas of the moon that hold relatively large amounts of frozen water. Such an area could prove to be a good location for a moon base where people could live. Astronauts could use water from the moon instead of transporting water from Earth.
LRO launched on June 18, 2009. LRO shared its launch rocket with another NASA spacecraft, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). LCROSS used an unusual method to study the chemical makeup of moon dust. Usually, after a rocket launches, its used stages (sections) fall back to Earth. But when LRO and LCROSS launched, LCROSS carried a used rocket stage to the moon. Mission designers purposely crashed the rocket stage in a crater near the moon’s south pole. The crash sent 350 metric tons of dust upward into space. LCROSS flew through the dust cloud to analyze its contents. The dust contained frozen water and other useful materials, including magnesium, calcium, and silver.
See also Space exploration (Exploring Earth’s moon).
