New Moon Map

This week, scientists released the best topographical map of the Moon ever created.  The new map, which covers 98.2 percent of the Moon's surface, gives detailed topo information down to the 100 meter scale.  This is an impressive feat that could only have been accomplished with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

The new, detailed, topographic map of the moon (NASA Goddard).

LRO, launched in 2009 and costing a little over $500 million, has been a resounding success.  In addition to the camera and on board altimeter that helped create the new topographic map, LRO has a number of other high-tech devices; the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE) has created a thermal map of the Lunar surface, while the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) is helping to determine how detrimental cosmic rays might be to biological organisms on the Moon's surface.

The completion of this map comes at an opportune time.  Early next year, NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft will arrive in lunar orbit, and create the most accurate gravity map of the Moon to date.  This combination of topographical, thermal, and gravity mapping will give scientists truly new insights into all aspects of the Moon's formation and subsequent development.

It's good to see that while NASA's manned program is shifting away from the Moon toward asteroids and Mars, a healthy robotic exploration of the Moon continues.  And it isn't just NASA that shows continued interest in the Moon.  As I've discussed before, China has distant plans to land human beings on the Moon - and while that might be a while off, they have launched two orbiters to our natural satellite, Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2, as part of their own robotic exploration program.  India, also, launched and operated the highly successful Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in orbit around the Moon.

There are also a number of private companies and individuals showing interest in lunar exploration.  Bigelow Aerospace wants to build inflatable habitats on the surface of the Moon to compliment their planned inflatable orbital station.  Shackleton Energy is looking into the possibility of extracting hydrogen and oxygen from the lunar surface, processing it into fuel, and building a fuel depot in lunar orbit.  And the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million contest to put a rover on the Moon, has some serious entries from cutting edge engineering teams from across the nation.  These are all ambitious plans, but the greater number of entities interested and involved in lunar exploration, the more the cost will come down, and the greater the chances of success of one or more of these projects.

Artist's rendition of a Bigelow Aerospace lunar base (Bigelow Aerospace).

Lunar exploration will go forward, and NASA's continued remote exploration of our closest neighbor will be absolutely vital.  My hope is that lunar programs don't lose steam with the coming robotic and manned explorations of other bodies in the solar system.

Twin GRAIL Probes Head to The Moon

NASA is headed back to the Moon!  Not with people, mind you, but with two very high tech spacecraft.  Yesterday morning, the GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) mission successfully launched from Cape Canaveral atop a Delta 2 rocket.  The mission involves two nearly identical spacecraft, Grail-A and Grail-B, which are now headed, at a slow pace, to the Moon.

The Delta 2 rocket carrying the GRAIL spacecraft rises from Cape Canaveral (NASA).

The GRAIL mission is a fascinating one.  Its purpose is to construct a 'gravity map' of the Moon.  The 'gravity map' will tell scientists what parts of the Moon have a greater or weaker gravitational pull.  Knowing this information will not only reveal the make-up of the Moon's interior, but will help future spacecraft enter into more exact orbits, and aid in the landing of lunar probes.  As part of NASA's Discovery Program (promoting science missions on the cheap), costs were kept to a minimum, and that meant keeping the washing machine-sized spacecraft light on fuel.  The GRAIL craft will take nearly four months to reach the Moon - a trip that the Apollo missions made in three days.  As they approach the Moon, around New Year's Day, the spacecraft will maneuver into tandem orbits, and fly the duration of their mission in formation.  By keeping in constant radio contact with one another, and Earth based antennae, even the slightest perturbations in the crafts' orbits will be detectable.  The greater the disturbance of the orbit, the greater the gravitational pull any given point on the lunar surface is exerting on the spacecraft.  Voila, you've got a gravity map of the Moon.

Okay, so it isn't quite that simple, but that's the basic premise.  The actual maneuvering of the spacecraft into their exact orbits will be an unprecedented feat.  Two craft have never been put into tandem orbits like this around another planet, which is another reason the craft are taking their time to get to the Moon.  Small adjustments to the crafts' trajectories will be made over the coming months, so that when they reach lunar orbit, they will be ready for their formation flying.

An artist's rendition of the GRAIL spacecraft communicating with each other and the Earth (NASA/JPL).

Each GRAIL spacecraft will also be equipped with a MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students).  Students participating in the program will be able to pick out features on the lunar surface, and then photograph them using the cameras.  This is the first time NASA has launched an instrument with the express purpose of public outreach.

The successful launch of the GRAIL mission comes at a fortuitous time.  In the past three weeks there have been three major spacecraft launches; two by Russia, and one by China.  They all failed.  Not to mention the recent failure of a suborbital launch test by private space firm, Blue Origin.  I don't take pleasure in any of these failures, but it is nice to be reminded of NASA's dominance.  Even in the face of fickle funding, and sometimes waning public interest, NASA continues to succeed.  They employ some of the best engineers and scientists in the world, and NASA's budget is almost equal to the budgets of every other national space agency combined.  NASA leads in space science and in achieving amazing technological feats, and that isn't changing anytime soon.