Instrument To Look For Signs Of ... Ice
NASA is scheduled to
launch the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, an unmanned mission to
comprehensively map the entire moon, Thursday, and one of the
instruments aboard, the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment, will
make the first global survey of the temperature of the lunar
surface while the orbiter circles some 50 kilometers (31 miles)
above the moon.
"The terrain on the far side of the moon is quite different from
that of the near side of the moon," said David Paige, principal
investigator for the Diviner instrument at UCLA. "The more we learn
about the moon, the better scientific questions we can pose, and
the better locations we can find for future lunar landings for
robotic and human explorers. By getting a comprehensive view, NASA
can tailor future landing sites to specific goals."
The Diviner instrument is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. A focus of the mission will be to study
the moon's polar regions, which are relatively unexplored and
extremely cold, because they do not receive direct sunlight. Their
temperatures of approximately 370 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit are
cold enough to trap water ice. Temperatures on the moon, as on
Earth, vary depending on the season, the time of day and other
factors. At the moon's equator, it can heat up to more than 240
degrees Fahrenheit in the sunlight, and get as cold as 270 degrees
below 0 Fahrenheit.
"We don't really know what we will find when we explore the
polar regions thoroughly," Paige said. Will they find deposits of
water ice in the polar regions? NASA's Apollo missions revealed
that lunar rocks are very dry, but did not provide information
about the polar regions, where water is most likely to exist. There
is indirect evidence for water at the moon's poles. The Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter may find more evidence for it. The
orbiters's scientific instruments, including Diviner, have been
tailored to learn more about the potential for water.
Diviner is a nine-channel radiometer that will make the first
maps of the temperature on the surface of the lunar polar regions.
The instrument will have the capability of measuring very cold
temperatures, and will, for the first time, characterize the entire
thermal environment of the moon. Diviner will also produce a map
showing the composition of the moon, and a map showing how rocky
the moon is. "With this instrument's unprecedented capabilities, we
are looking forward to helping not only rewrite the moon's history,
but its future," said Wayne Hartford, project manager for the
Diviner instrument at JPL.
In addition to creating a comprehensive atlas of the moon's
features with detailed information about surface and subsurface
temperatures, Diviner will identify cold traps and potential ice
deposits, as well as landing hazards such as rough terrain or rocks
to be avoided by future manned missions to the moon.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the first mission in NASA's
Vision for Space Exploration program, a plan to return to the moon
and then to travel to Mars and beyond. The mission will gather
crucial data on the lunar environment that will help astronauts
prepare for long-duration lunar expeditions.