Lunar Flashlight, Mapping lunar water |
Lunar Flashlight, Mapping lunar water |
Nov 19 2014, 04:45 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 65 Joined: 19-November 14 From: Milan, Italy Member No.: 7340 |
In 2017, NASA's Lunar Flashlight probe will piggyback a ride on the Space Launch System's first flight. The probe, a CubeSat with an 80 sqm solar sail made out of Kapton, will orbit 20 km above the Moon. Its goal will be to map the moon's polar regions, searching from water ice deposits over the course of 80+ orbits. The probe will reflect light off its solar sail and onto the surface of the moon and then it will analyze it using reflectance spectroscopy.
Lunar Flashlight will be followed by the Resource Prospector Mission (RPM), a rover which will liftoff aboard a private rocket in 2018. The rover will land in one of the sites studied by Lunar Flashlight. RPM will last around a week and will look for hydrogen using a spectrometer capable of penetrating 1 m into the ground. (excuse me for my bad English) |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 22nd September 2024 - 07:04 AM |
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