NASA Chooses New Spacecraft to Search for Water on Moon (Forwarded)

Michael Braukus/Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington April 10, 2006
(202) 358-1979/1753

John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
(650) 604-5026

RELEASE: 06-181

NASA CHOOSES NEW SPACECRAFT TO SEARCH FOR WATER ON MOON

NASA will send a second spacecraft to the moon with the launch of the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled for October 2008. The Lunar
Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite will travel independent of
the orbiter to search for water ice.

The spacecraft, proposed by NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett
Field, Calif., will fly as a secondary payload on the Evolved
Expendable Launch Vehicle that will launch the orbiter from NASA's
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

First, the craft will direct the upper stage used to leave Earth orbit
to crash into a permanently-shadowed crater at the lunar south pole,
creating a plume visible to Earth-based observatories. Next, the
satellite will observe the plume and fly through it using several
instruments to look for water. Then the satellite will itself become
an impactor, creating a second plume visible to lunar-orbiting
spacecraft and Earth-based observatories.

"This type of payload is not new to NASA," said Associate
Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Scott
Horowitz, who made the selection. "We are taking advantage of the
payload capability of the launch vehicle to conduct additional high
risk/high payoff science to meet Vision for Space Exploration goals.
It also signals to our workforce that innovative and competitive,
low-cost approaches will be rewarded," he said.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the first of many robotic missions
NASA will conduct between 2008 and 2016 to study, map, and learn
about the lunar surface to prepare for the return of astronauts to
the moon. These early missions will help determine lunar landing
sites and whether resources, such as oxygen, hydrogen, and metals,
are available for use in NASA's long-term lunar exploration
objectives.

NASA's requirements for the secondary payload were that it benefits
the robotic lunar program, cost no more than $80 million and not
exceed 2,205 pounds (1000 kilograms).

On January 10, 2006, NASA issued a request for information to industry
to allow businesses to provide secondary payload concepts to NASA.
NASA encouraged its field centers to team with industry to develop
proposals. Each NASA center reviewed ideas from industry, as well as
secondary payload concepts developed internally. Several proposers,
such as the winning spacecraft, took advantage of a new secondary
payload adapter developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory,
Kirkland Air Force Base, N.M.

NASA asked that the concepts advance the Vision for Space Exploration
by advancing lunar science, characterizing the lunar environment, and
identifying of sites for future human missions NASA was also looking
for missions that would advance commercial opportunities and collect
engineering data to support the Constellation program, which is
developing NASA's new spaceship, the Crew Exploration Vehicle.

For more about NASA's plans to explore the moon, Mars and beyond,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration