Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Overview: The Instrument Suite and Mission

NASA’s Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP), formulated in response to the President’s Vision for Space Exploration, will execute a series of robotic missions that will pave the way for eventual permanent human presence on the Moon. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is first in this series of LPRP missions, and plans to launch in October of 2008 for at least one year of operation. LRO will employ six individual instruments to produce accurate maps and high-resolution images of future landing sites, to assess potential lunar resources, and to characterize the radiation environment. LRO will also test the feasibility of one advanced technology demonstration package. The LRO payload includes: Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) which will determine the global topography of the lunar surface at high resolution, measure landing site slopes, surface roughness, and search for possible polar surface ice in shadowed regions, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) which will acquire targeted narrow angle images of the lunar surface capable of resolving meter-scale features to support landing site selection, as well as wide-angle images to characterize polar illumination conditions and to identify potential resources, Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) which will map the flux of neutrons from the lunar surface to search for evidence of water ice, and will provide space radiation environment measurements that may be useful for future human exploration, Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE) which will chart the temperature of the entire lunar surface at approximately 300 meter horizontal resolution to identify cold-traps and potential ice deposits, Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) which will map the entire lunar surface in the far ultraviolet. LAMP will search for surface ice and frost in the polar regions and provide images of permanently shadowed regions illuminated only by starlight. Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER), which will investigate the effect of galactic cosmic rays on tissue-equivalent plastics as a constraint on models of biological response to background space radiation. The technology demonstration is an advanced radar (mini-RF) that will demonstrate X- and S-band radar imaging and interferometry using light weight synthetic aperture radar. This paper will give an introduction to each of these instruments and an overview of their objectives.     

Lunar photography: Techniques and results

Conclusion The lunar photography missions have included flyby, impacter, lander, and orbiter spacecrafts. These missions have provided photographs of the far side of the moon and a ten-fold increase in frontside resolution plus higher resolution of selected frontside areas. The resolutions which have been achieved vary from 1 m for the Lunar Orbiter to 1/2 m for the impacting Ranger to millimeters for Luna-IX and the Surveyors. The return from these missions have resolved much of the mystery surrounding the moon.The prime objective of the U.S. photographic missions has been the support of the Apollo-manned lunar landing program. The Ranger program, the Surveyor program, and the Lunar Orbiter program provided a logical progression in the utilization of a developing space exploration technology. These programs have provided the required information and have confirmed that the Apollo landing vehicle design is compatible with the conditions to be experienced on selected areas of the lunar surface.The future manned landing missions can be expected to provide additional lunar photography. Since the astronauts can be more selective in their photography, even more outstanding and informative results should be achieved. The addition of movies and even live television coverage will permit earth-based man to share more directly in the manned exploration of the moon.The unmanned photographic exploration of the moon has provided much of the technology required for similar missions to the planets. The U.S. Mariner-IV was the first successful mission to obtain close-up photographs of the planet Mars. It can be expected that both the U.S.A. and Russia will try for further photographic successes in the exploration of our solar system.This paper presents the results of one phase of research carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under Contract No. NAS 7-100, sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.     

Ground Compatibility Tests for Gravity Measurement of SELENE: Accuracies of Two- and Four-Way Doppler and Range Measurements

The Japanese lunar mission Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) was launched in September 2007 and continued its mission until June 2009, when the main orbiter impacted with the surface of the Moon. SELENE consisted of three satellites: Main, Rstar, and Vstar. Rstar’s tasks were to forward up-link signals from the Usuada Deep Space Center (UDSC) to Main, and to down-link returning signals from Main to UDSC. We refer to this tracking sub-system as a four-way Doppler measurement. In contrast, conventional tracking systems between Rstar and UDSC as well as between Main and ground stations are referred to as two-way Doppler and range measurements. Using Main and Rstar, we successfully observed the gravity field over the farside of the Moon. Because four-way Doppler measurements via a relay sub-satellite were a fundamental experiment in space for Japanese space agencies, compatibility of radiometric instruments onboard Main and Rstar to UDSC were carefully examined at the UDSC using components manufactured for flight models. These tests not only proved the feasibility of the four-way Doppler measurements but also provided biases and variations of the four-way Doppler and two-way Doppler and range measurements that were later taken into account during the processing of tracking data and the analysis of the lunar global gravity field.     

新一代载人月面着陆器发展趋势研究

月面着陆器是实现载人探月任务的重要组成部分,从任务规划和着陆器参数两个方面对早期美国阿波罗计划中的月面着陆器（ LM）、苏联N1-L3登月计划中的月面着陆器（ L3登月系统）以及最近美国星座计划中的月面着陆器（ Altair）的相关情况进行了分析,并从任务需求、月面环境和研究经费及基础设施方面对LM与Altair月面着陆器进行详细比较,通过比较分析总结出新一代载人月面着陆器将沿着提高乘员运送能力、扩大到达范围、延长航天员生活时间及功能模块化的方向发展,并提出研制新一代月面着陆器应着重解决着陆器推进、结构、着陆障碍检测及缓冲以及月尘防护等关键技术。     

太空环境下电子束原位制造技术

美国国家航空航天局（NASA）载人探索计划的提出给载人登月和载人火星等带来了机会和风险,NASA的工程师和科学家正在开展在月球或火星表面利用当地提炼的材料进行原位制造工艺技术的研究。首先,介绍了太空原位制造和修复（ISFR）技术的概念和特点,结合该技术的发展背景,介绍了电子束原位制造技术的概念、特点以及在太空环境下应用的优势和潜力。然后,根据所用原材料和成形工艺原理的不同,电子束原位制造技术又分为电子束熔融（EBM）和电子束自由成形制造（EBF³）技术两个分支,分别介绍了这两个分支技术的概念、原理、特点以及采用该技术研制出的零件的性能,结合硬件设备的情况介绍了在太空环境下应用的适用性,同时也详细介绍了NASA利用兰利研究中心的C-9抛物线飞行试验系统进行电子束原位制造微重力试验的研究成果、试验数据和未来的发展趋势。最后,结合中国未来空间事业发展的需要,提出了关于发展太空环境下电子束原位制造技术的设想与建议。     

Back to the moon: the lure of lunar exploration

Interest in returning to the Moon is growing and has sparked plans for a NASA robotic sample return probe to the South Pole-Aitken basin. Japan and the European Space Agency also have plans for lunar probes and China is interested in expanding its new space program to the Moon.     

Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector for the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

The design of the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) experiment is presented, which was optimized to address several of the primary measurement requirements of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO): high spatial resolution hydrogen mapping of the Moon’s upper-most surface, identification of putative deposits of appreciable near-surface water ice in the Moon’s polar cold traps, and characterization of the human-relevant space radiation environment in lunar orbit. A comprehensive program of LEND instrument physical calibrations is discussed and the baseline scenario of LEND observations from the primary LRO lunar orbit is presented. LEND data products will be useful for determining the next stages of the emerging global lunar exploration program, and they will facilitate the study of the physics of hydrogen implantation and diffusion in the regolith, test the presence of water ice deposits in lunar cold polar traps, and investigate the role of neutrons within the radiation environment of the shallow lunar surface.     

Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL): Mapping the Lunar Interior from Crust to Core

The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) is a spacecraft-to-spacecraft tracking mission that was developed to map the structure of the lunar interior by producing a detailed map of the gravity field. The resulting model of the interior will be used to address outstanding questions regarding the Moon’s thermal evolution, and will be applicable more generally to the evolution of all terrestrial planets. Each GRAIL orbiter contains a Lunar Gravity Ranging System instrument that conducts dual-one-way ranging measurements to measure precisely the relative motion between them, which in turn are used to develop the lunar gravity field map. Each orbiter also carries an Education/Public Outreach payload, Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle-School Students (MoonKAM), in which middle school students target images of the Moon for subsequent classroom analysis. Subsequent to a successful launch on September 10, 2011, the twin GRAIL orbiters embarked on independent trajectories on a 3.5-month-long cruise to the Moon via the EL-1 Lagrange point. The spacecraft were inserted into polar orbits on December 31, 2011 and January 1, 2012. After a succession of 19 maneuvers the two orbiters settled into precision formation to begin science operations in March 1, 2012 with an average altitude of 55 km. The Primary Mission, which consisted of three 27.3-day mapping cycles, was successfully completed in June 2012. The extended mission will permit a second three-month mapping phase at an average altitude of 23 km. This paper provides an overview of the mission: science objectives and measurements, spacecraft and instruments, mission development and design, and data flow and data products.     

影响环月飞行器定轨精度的误差源分析

以我国正在实施的探月计划“嫦娥1号”工程为背案,在现有测控网分布、观测弧段以及尽可能接近真实情况的误差源等前提下,利用仿真模拟的方法对影响环月飞行器定轨精度的误差源进行了初步探讨和分析。重点考察了月球重力场误差、观测量精度、初始时刻的先验轨道误差以及观测资料类型等对环月飞行器定轨精度的影响。     

载人登月着陆器奔月窗口搜索方法

对环月轨道共面交会的载人登月任务中,着陆器(LM)奔月零窗口与轨道参数精确快速设计方法进行了研究。任务采用人货分离奔月模式,着陆器于载人飞船到达环月轨道前抵达环月共面交会轨道,着陆器近月点一次共面减速完成近月制动。提出一种三层快速精确奔月窗口搜索方法:第一层采用地心二体轨道理论解析计算月窗口及奔月轨道参数初值,作为正确性基本参考;第二层采用改进的双二体解析动力学模型求解月窗口内奔月轨道参数变化规律;第三层采用高精度轨道动力学模型和SQP_Snopt优化求解奔月零窗口及轨道参数精确解。仿真结果表明,本文提出的三层逐级奔月窗口搜索方法能快速精确求解载人登月任务中着陆器奔月窗口及精确轨道参数,也揭示了影响着陆器奔月窗口的主次因素和规律,为中国未来载人登月工程提供参考。     

基于人工免疫算法的载人登月任务地月转移双脉冲中止策略研究彭 坤,果琳丽,向开恒,王 平,杨 雷

载人登月任务中,任务中止策略设计是确保航天员安全返回的重要基础。首先结合"星座"计划飞行方案分析了载人登月任务各飞行阶段的中止策略;其次针对地月转移巡航段进行了双脉冲中止策略设计,以速度增量数值、方位角以及变轨时间间隔为控制变量,加入轨道同向、近地点高度、偏心率以及飞行时间约束,提出双脉冲变轨计算流程;最后采用人工免疫算法对该问题进行了求解和优化。仿真算例表明,双脉冲中止策略存在多组解,其全局分布特性为:飞行时间越短速度增量需求越大;飞行时间相近时,大偏心率中止轨道对应的速度增量小;故障点离地月加速点越近,所需速度增量越小。同时也验证了人工免疫算法求解双脉冲中止策略问题的有效性。     

Recent observations of the Moon by spacecraft

Lunar flyby, orbiting, and landing spacecraft in the last ten years have provided an excellent definition of the nature of the lunar surface, and important information about the lunar interior. Some of the major controversies concerning the Moon appear now to be resolved.This work was sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the U.S.A. under contract NAS7-100.     

Synopsis: Horizons in Guidance Computer Component Technology

An extensive survey of semiconductor and memory component manufacturers conducted by the Electronics Research Center of NASA and industry has resulted in estimates of the state of the art of components available to designers of on-board guidance and control computers for long-term, deep-space missions for the 1970-1972 period. The vehicle for the survey was the mission requirements for the synchronous satellite, lunar orbiter, Mars orbiter, and Jupiter fly-by solar probe missions.     

载人火星探测进展及其EDL过程GNC关键技术

随着火星探测技术的不断发展和探测任务的不断推进，载人火星探测在未来将会成为火星探测的重要手段。首先，回顾了无人火星探测任务的发展历程，对比分析了部分无人火星探测器进入、下降与着陆（EDL）过程的参数。然后，结合无人火星探测、载人月球探测和载人航天再入过程，梳理了载人火星探测的特点及需求，系统地总结了前苏联/俄罗斯和美国的载人火星探测研究进展以及技术储备。接着，归纳了载人火星探测的体系构成、集结方式和主要的技术挑战。最后，概括了载人火星EDL过程面临的难题，重点阐述了EDL的导航、制导与控制（GNC）关键技术。     

ARTEMIS Mission Design

The ARTEMIS mission takes two of the five THEMIS spacecraft beyond their prime mission objectives and reuses them to study the Moon and the lunar space environment. Although the spacecraft and fuel resources were tailored to space observations from Earth orbit, sufficient fuel margins, spacecraft capability, and operational flexibility were present that with a circuitous, ballistic, constrained-thrust trajectory, new scientific information could be gleaned from the instruments near the Moon and in lunar orbit. We discuss the challenges of ARTEMIS trajectory design and describe its current implementation to address both heliophysics and planetary science objectives. In particular, we explain the challenges imposed by the constraints of the orbiting hardware and describe the trajectory solutions found in prolonged ballistic flight paths that include multiple lunar approaches, lunar flybys, low-energy trajectory segments, lunar Lissajous orbits, and low-lunar-periapse orbits. We conclude with a discussion of the risks that we took to enable the development and implementation of ARTEMIS.     

Design and experimental performance verification of a thermal property test-bed for lunar drilling exploration

Chinese Chang'e lunar exploration project aims to collect and return subsurface lunar soil samples at a minimum penetration depth of 2 m in 2017. However, in contrast to those on the Earth, automated drilling and sampling missions on the Moon raise the risk of burning bits.Test-beds are required for testing the thermal properties of drill tools in a lunar environment. In this paper, a novel temperature measuring method based on thermocouples and a slip ring was proposed. Furthermore, a data acquisition system for a drilling process was designed. A vacuous,cryogenic, and anhydrous soil environment simulating the lunar surface was established. A drilling test-bed that can reach a depth of 2.2 m was developed. A control strategy based on online monitoring signals was proposed to improve the drilling performance. Vacuum and non-vacuum experiments were performed to test the temperature rising effect on drill tools. When compared with the non-vacuum experiment, the vacuum temperature rise resulted in a 12 °C increase. These experimental results provide significant support for Chinese lunar exploration missions.     

Space power for an expanded vision

The author suggests that the problem with the space program in the 1990s is that there are few short term benefits that the public can directly relate to and no long term vision that will motivate them. Recent surveys have shown that public would support an expanded space program if they understood the specific short term purpose that provides benefits coupled to a longer term vision. The author discusses a proposed space program that has a 100 Year Vision and a specific beneficial near term purpose. The specific near term purpose is to return to the Moon and develop He for nuclear fusion power on Earth, and then expand into the Solar System and eventually to the nearby stars with the purpose of finding new life as a long term vision. This is how the author sees it unfolding-in three Epochs. Epoch I is proposed as the minimum near term space program. Space Station Freedom in near-Earth orbit being serviced by the Space Shuttle, the National Aerospace Plane and the Single-Stage-To-Orbit Vehicle. Just above Freedom is an Earth Observing System Satellite that, as part of Mission to Planet Earth, will monitor and analyze our planet's ecological systems. There are also a great many scientific, defense and launch systems whose technologies will evolve to play critical roles in future epochs     

The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter Investigation on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission

The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) is an instrument on the payload of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft (LRO) (Chin et al., in Space Sci. Rev. 129:391–419, 2007). The instrument is designed to measure the shape of the Moon by measuring precisely the range from the spacecraft to the lunar surface, and incorporating precision orbit determination of LRO, referencing surface ranges to the Moon’s center of mass. LOLA has 5 beams and operates at 28 Hz, with a nominal accuracy of 10 cm. Its primary objective is to produce a global geodetic grid for the Moon to which all other observations can be precisely referenced.     

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO): Observations for Lunar Exploration and Science

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was implemented to facilitate scientific and engineering-driven mapping of the lunar surface at new spatial scales and with new remote sensing methods, identify safe landing sites, search for in situ resources, and measure the space radiation environment. After its successful launch on June 18, 2009, the LRO spacecraft and instruments were activated and calibrated in an eccentric polar lunar orbit until September 15, when LRO was moved to a circular polar orbit with a mean altitude of 50 km. LRO will operate for at least one year to support the goals of NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), and for at least two years of extended operations for additional lunar science measurements supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD). LRO carries six instruments with associated science and exploration investigations, and a telecommunications/radar technology demonstration. The LRO instruments are: Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER), Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE), Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP), Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND), Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). The technology demonstration is a compact, dual-frequency, hybrid polarity synthetic aperture radar instrument (Mini-RF). LRO observations also support the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), the lunar impact mission that was co-manifested with LRO on the Atlas V (401) launch vehicle. This paper describes the LRO objectives and measurements that support exploration of the Moon and that address the science objectives outlined by the National Academy of Science’s report on the Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon (SCEM). We also describe data accessibility by the science and exploration community.