NASA Considers Stowaway Finalists for LRO Launch Options

[NMRguy]

NASA reports that the rocket to carry the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will have an extra 1000 kg available for secondary payload, and it has taken proposals for bare-bones missions to fill this space. It seems like a nice way to get some specialized science done.


http://space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_060327.html

“NASA received 19 ‘pretty freakin' exciting’ proposals within a matter of weeks, according to Borkowski, and by late February had selected four finalists for a closer look. The finalists were due to present additional information to NASA the week of March 20. Borkowski said NASA intends to make its selection by early April and give the chosen team authority to proceed."

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

The 4 concepts are named, but no details are given. I'll scrounge around on the Web and see if I can dig up any details.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

No luck on that point. Goddard's "NASA Academy" did propose an "Easy Low-Cost Lunar Explorer" back in 1998 ( http://academy.gsfc.nasa.gov/1998/html/project.html ), and Goddard's current finalist is called the "Lunar Explorer" -- but the ELLE concept would have utilized copies of the Deep Space 2 penetrators, which aren't likely to be very popular for the purpose at this point...