SELENE (KAGUYA) -- launched 14 September 2007 (JAPAN)

The SELENE, or KAGUYA, mission is JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) first independent attempt at sending a spacecraft with two probes onboard to investigate the evolution and origin of the moon. Over a one-year period, KAGUYA will use a suite of 14 scientific instruments and a high definition camera to perform a global survey of the Moon at 10 m per pixel resolution, and determine aspects about its surface and interior. Data will be gathered in areas, such as, the moon’s elemental and mineralogical composition, its tectonic history, its energetic particles, its electromagnetic field and plasma around the moon, and on the polar regions that will provide the basic information of future construction of an astronomical observatory on the lunar surface. The $474 million (55 billion yen) mission will also include observation of earth’s magnetosphere from lunar orbit to clarify the global dynamics of its terrestrial plasmasphere. 

Approximately five days after launching from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan, SELENE (nicknamed KAGUYA) will through a series of orbital manoeuvres transfer into a 2 hour, 100 km circular polar science orbit around the Moon. During those manoeuvres, KAGUYA will release two 50 kg probes each of which will circulate on different elliptic orbits to observe the Moon. The first satellite, called Okina (RSTAR) will relay the Doppler ranging signals between the main orbiter and the ground station for the world's first direct measurement of the gravity field in the farside of the moon, while the second, a satellite called VRAD, will also take gravitational field distribution measurements, along with detecting the tenuous lunar ionosphere.

The 15 scientific instruments and measurements include:

(A) Main orbiter

The main orbiter will maintain a circular orbit around the Moon for about a year doing the science operations, and use correction burns roughly every two months to maintain its orbit within 30 km of the 100 km nominal orbit. An option to lower the orbit between 40 to 70 km after one year is being considered. If the main orbiter is still in good condition (and finances allow) after that period, KAGUYA could get an additional extension in its mission. However, JAXA may decide to crash-land all three satellites onto the surface to learn more about the moon’s regolith (its soil). The soil over the period that it has been exposed to the solar wind, as well as bombardment by comets and asteroids, has build up reserves of hydrogen. These deposits can later be used to draw oxygen out of iron oxides in the regolith to form water, which can then be electrolysed to split it back into pure hydrogen and oxygen.

(1) The X-ray Spectrometer [XRS] will determine the Surface distribution of major elements such as Mg, AI, Si, Fe, Na using X-ray CCD array, with spatial resolution of 20km.

(2) The Spectral Profiler [SP] will take continuous spectral profiles of the moon’s mineralogical distribution from 0.5 to 2.6µm (spectral resolution 6 to 8nm and spatial resolution 500m).

(3) The Gamma-ray Spectrometer [GRS] will construct a global map of chemical distribution of K, U, Th etc., using a highly pure Ge crystal (resolution 120km).

(4) The Multiband Imager [MI] will use UV-VIS-NIR imager, spectral coverage ranging from 0.4 to 1.6µm in 9 bands (spectral resolution 20 to 50nm and spatial resolution 20m) to determine the moon’s mineralogical distribution.

(5) The Terrain Camera [TC] will take high-resolution images of the surface using a stereo camera (spatial resolution 10m).

(6) The Lunar Radar Sounder [LRS] will use a  HF radar to sound the subsurface structure of the moon and observe its natural radio and plasma waves.

(7) The Laser Altimeter [LALT] will use an Nd: YAG laser (pulse rate 1Hz) altimeter to determine height resolution down to 5m of the surface structure.

(8) The Lunar Magnetometer [LMAG] will determine the magnetic field measurements using flux-gate type magnetometers (accuracy 0.5 nT).

(9) The Upper atmosphere and Plasma Imager [UPI] will image the Earth’s magnetosphere and aurora from the lunar orbit.

(10) The Charged Particle Spectrometer [CPS] will be used for mapping of Rn and Po using ARD (4 to 6.5 MeV for alpha), and for taking measurements of high energy particles using PS instruments (e: 0.3 to 1MeV, p:0.1 to 60MeV, Heavy ion: 2.5 to 370MeV/n).

(11) The Plasma energy Angle and Composition Experiment [PACE] will take charged particle energy and composition measurement at 5eV/q to 28keV/q for Ions, and at 5eV to 17keV for Electrons.

(12) The Radio Science [RS] detector will be used for detection of the tenuous lunar ionosphere using S- and X-band carriers.

(13) The High Definition Television [HDTV] will be used for taking pictures and movies of the Earth and the Moon with high-definition television cameras.

(B) Relay Satellite

(14) This satellite (or given its nickname "OKINA (RSTAR" for 'honourable elderly man' -- released 8 October 2007) is a transponder  that will take farside gravimetric measurements from the ground station to the main orbiter via the relay satellite from between 2,400 to 100km in altitude. The orbit of Okina will be such that either it or Kaguya itself is always in sight of Earth, and each other. The two - Kaguya and Okina - thus, have the ability to provide precise tracking information to map farside gravity anomalies, such as 'mascons' - possibly huge mounds of mantle that lie underneath most of the major lunar basins that formed, in part, due to the lunar mantle rebounded into the lunar crust.

(C) VRAD Satellite

(15) This satellite (or given its nickname "OUNA" for 'honourable elderly woman' -- released on the 12 October 2007) consists of a differential Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI), it will take observation of radio sources on board the relay satellite and VRAD from ground radio telescopes, for selenodesic (the physical geography) and gravimetric (gravity) measurements.

The way ahead

KAGUYA will be the largest unmanned spacecraft ever sent to the moon. JAXA had intentions to launch another spacecraft, called Lunar-A, to the Moon before KAGUYA, however, that now has been scrapped. Lunar-A consisted of an orbiter and two surface-penetrating probes that would have smashed into the lunar surface to take seismic and heat-flow measurements on the near and far sides of the moon. Development of the probes, however, fell well behind schedule, and as the orbiter was in somewhat in disrepair, JAXA decided that to continue with development would have been far too expensive.

That hasn't stopped JAXA from proposing future plans for the moon. The space agency has drawn up proposals for a lunar base by 2020 - occupied and built by humanoid and rover robots. Construction of the base will be at the South Pole region of the Moon, where power requirements will be retrieved through a solar panel network.

The robotic base will serve as a foundation for a manned base expected to start sometime around 2030 -- that is, after they first send astronauts to the Moon by their 2020 deadline. Once a base has been built, JAXA envisions a few astronauts manning the facility for 6 months in turn.

However, as any one single country will need a lot of financial backing for such an independent venture, the more than likely scenario would be to have several international countries conglomerate into one and build an international lunar base. (See news item on KAGUYA here).

UPDATES:

12 February 2009: OKINA (RSTAR) crashed on the Moon today at coordinates believed to be 28.0N, 201.0E on the farside of the Moon near crater Mineur D. The OUNA satellite will continue in orbit around the Moon for another several years until finally it too succumbs to crashing on the Moon -- the date has not yet been predicted.

April 2009: Kaguya/Selene Image of Moon

11 June 2009: Kaguya/Selene impacted the Moon today. The impact is reported to have occurred at 3.25 (Japan Standard Time) in an area of the Moon's south-east region (rough coordinates given are 80.4E, 65.5S).

27 May 2010: JAXA announce plans for a lunar robotic base by 2020 (see News 27 May 2010).

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

Chang'e 1 -- launched 24 October 2007 (CHINA)

Chang'e 1 is China’s first step in an ambitious moon program that intends to land a probe on the moon's surface by 2013/14, followed by a robotic rover lunar sample return mission in 2017 (all unmanned). From orbit Chang’e-1, with advanced cameras and x-ray spectrometers onboard, will obtain three-dimensional images of the Moon's surface at 120 m per pixel resolution. It will analyze the content and distribution of useful chemical elements on the surface, map the thickness of the lunar regolith (the moon’s soil), and measure the spatial distribution of low-energy ions in the solar wind and the near-lunar region. On reaching the Moon, a rocket firing will place the spacecraft in polar orbit about the Moon, with later burns at perilune (closest point in its lunar orbit) to decrease its apolune (furthest point in its orbit) until a final near-circular orbit is attained. Once in orbit about the Moon the spacecraft, with several different scientific instruments onboard, will launch into its expected one-year-long mission (extended if the health of the craft is good).

Chang’e 1 is the first part of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP) conducted under the China National Space Administration (CNSA) -- a civilian agency of the People’s Republic of China. The mission also has support from the European Space Agency (ESA), who are providing spacecraft and ground operations support services through ESTRACK -- a tracking network comprising of 12 terminals sited at eight stations in five countries which are remotely controlled by the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. Plans are that the two will work together on future Chang'e missions, where the two agencies will share data and encourage a visitors' programme so that researchers can learn from each other.

The spacecraft was launched onboard a Chinese Long March 3A rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Research and development of a new design of a carrier rocket will begin around 2010, which will use non-toxic and non-polluting engines. This new generation of carrier rockets, called Long March 5 (a Chang Zheng-5 booster), will be able to carry up to 25 tonnes to near-earth orbits and 14 tonnes to geosynchronous orbits, giving China the same launch capabilities as developed countries (the current indigenously-developed Long March series of rockets can carry 9 tonnes to an orbit 300 km from Earth, or send satellites of 5 tonnes to a geosynchronous orbit 36,000 km away). Long March 5, therefore, will most likely be used for sending large satellites into space, as well as future space stations and lunar rovers. Rocket development of the Long March 5 was approved in 2007, and will begin active service in 2014 (assuming commissioning begins in 2013). Built in the northern coastal region of Tianjin and launched from a new launch centre to be built in the southern-most province of Hainan (expected to commence launch operations by 2014), upto 12 large-thrust carrier rockets each year will be produced.

The entire series of missions – Chang’e 1, the robotic lander and sample-return – has, so far been budgeted at a total cost of about 1.4 billion Chinese Yuan (about ~ $1.84 billion -- 2007 estimate), and when finalised in the expected 'before' date of 2017, China has further intensions to conduct manned expeditions -- under the control of the People's Liberation Army as opposed to the unmanned run by the civilian-based CNSA -- to the Moon (or to the possible development of a permanent manned moon base on the surface possibly by 2024).

In China's second phase of its Lunar Probe Project of operations, the agency hopes to launch their next probe, Chang'e 2, in October 2010 on a Long March 3-C carrier rocket, which will follow an orbit of 100 km above the moon's surface - 100 km lower than Chang'e 1's current orbiting altitude. An additional probe, Chang'e 3, in the second phase will also be launched using a Long March 3B carrier rocket, and this craft may involve soft landings and inspection of the lunar surface. This mission (possibly in 2013/14) may likely include a rover also, and its main objective will be to transmit video footage and analyse soil samples in preparation for the 2017-20 sample return mission; which are more likely to be returned to Earth orbit several months later. Scientists in Shanghai are developing a nuclear-powered prototype that resembles NASA's current mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, although it is not clear if China's space agency will select this design. (See news item on Chang'e 1 here).

As is usual, however, finding out factual information about China's lunar plans is always difficult (CNSA's secretive policy), so caution needs to be exercised on the above-mentioned future dates and plans, which, were taken from official press releases by CNSA. Two further cautions in reference to the above also need to be exercised. Firstly, journalists sometimes misquote those plans and dates because of the Chinese to English translation -- for example, confusion surrounds the 2024 date above. Is this the actual landing date of the manned mission, or is it the date for starting work on a manned lunar program. It's as well to note that China has never exhibited any illustration of a manned lunar landing spacecraft todate (like they have done with Chang'e 1). Secondly, Chinese political officials don't like to loose face in the international space community, so the future lunar, optimistic approach of CNSA could just be a propaganda stunt to keep pressure on other 'close' space agencies nearby, like, for instance, Japan and Russia.

If, however, China's plans of a manned mission to the moon within the near future are to be successful, the most likely scenario would include their Shenzhou earth orbital spacecraft. This would include altering some technical aspects in the spacecraft, which could then be used to act as a main lunar orbiter for delivery of landers on to the surface. If this would be the case, CNSA's lunar plans (and predicted dates) could be a very feasible, future project. The Chinese family of spacecraft once consisted of four series but now that has grown to six, and in the last five years they have successfully launched 24 Changzheng rockets and put into orbit 22 satellites of various types.

The instruments include:
(1) An Optical Imaging System, a CCD Stereo Camera, and an Interferometer Spectrometer Imager. The CCD optical system will use a series of three, 2-dimensional original images of a target area taken before and reconfigure them into a 3-dimensional image of the lunar surface. The Interferometer Spectrometer Imager uses a special camera that is able to obtain images based on the fact that different objects have different spectrum properties. This multi-spectra, remote sensing of the lunar surface will then be integrated into the lunar terrain images obtained through the stereo camera; enabling scientists conduct researches on the properties of regional resources and materials.

(2) A Laser Altimeter will be used to provide complementary data to the elevation data of lunar surface and to refine the lunar surface digital model.

(3) Gamma/X-Ray Spectrometers will be able to obtain the distribution of different elements according to the differences of energy spectra of gamma and X rays emitted by various elements due to cosmic ray excitation, such as the gamma-ray spectra for elements of Th, U and K, and X-ray spectra for elements of Na, S and Ni. The data concerning elements of Fe, Ti, Al and Mg can be obtained through both gamma- and X-ray spectra.

(4) A Microwave Detector that will operate in four different frequency bands will allow different depths of the lunar soil to be penetrated based on the fact that microwave radiation brightness varies through the regolith soil.

(5) A Space Environment Monitoring System consisting of a High-Energy Solar Particle Detector will consist of a small probe that will be launched separately from Chang’e 1 to perform analysis of the space between the Moon and the Earth. Working in the region of 40,000 to 400,000 kilometres (25,000 to 250,000 miles) from the Earth, it will investigate the solar wind and other activities from the Sun.

China has already launched its first manned mission in 2003, a second manned mission in 2005, and a third expected in late 2008; making it the third country in the world to put a human in space (Russia and the USA are the others). Its space ambitions have continued to grow and last March it announced that it would launch a joint mission with Russia to Mars in 2009, and in November 2007 they put out tenders to the public to get involved in the second-stage part of the Moon projects for participation from competent institutions and enterprises. China also hopes to become the 17th nation to join the International Space Station (ISS) project.

While all of the above seems like China are 'racing' to the moon and 'elsewhere' in other space exploration activities, in reality they all come under China's five-year policy of space missions, which is to increase in significant technological advances over the previous five years.

UPDATES:

1 March 2009: China's Chang'e 1 mission has crashed on the Moon. The spacecraft, which carried an array of scientific instruments designed to take three-dimensional images of the lunar surface, is said to have crashed somewhere in Mare Faecunditatis (see image of crash site on Chuck Wood's Lunar Photo Of the Day). The craft hit the surface at approximately 16:13pm Beijing time (08:13GMT) today in an oblique angle, and was navigated down onto the surface by remote control stations situated in China's Qingdao and northwest China's Kashi regions. The craft marked the first stage in the country's intentions to explore the Moon -- leaving engineers prepare for the the next stage, Chang'e 2. This craft is expected to be launched sometime in 2011/12 into an orbit of 100 km above the moon's surface, later followed in 2013/14 by Chang'e 3 that may involve soft landings and inspection of the lunar surface. This mission will be an exciting one as it may also include a rover whose main objective will be to transmit video footage and analyse soil samples in preparation for a sample return mission, Chang'e 4, in 2017 (returned to Earth orbit several months later). Chang'e 1 initially was designed to last a year in orbit around the Moon, however, good conditions onboard allowed it survive for an additional three months. In all, it transmitted upto 1.4 terabytes (1 terabyte = 1000 gigabytes) of data back to stations on Earth.

15 September 2009: LRO manoeuvred into a 50 km orbit.

23 May 2009: Chief designer, Ye Peijian, who worked on the Chang'e 1 probe has said that Chinese scientists are looking at feasibility studies for a future manned landing on the Moon sometime between 2025 and 2030.

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

Chandrayaan-1 -- launched 22 October 2008 (INDIA)

Chandraan I is ISRO’s (India Space Agency) first ever mission to the Moon to carry out high resolution mapping of the lunar surface at 5 m per pixel resolution, and distribution of various chemical elements and minerals.

Several Indian-made scientific instruments onboard will carry out a range of activities, including an impactor payload that will crash on to the lunar surface to see if they can control how and where it lands. If the payload survives the landing it will also carry out analyses of surface materials, which will be used to plan for manned landing missions on the Moon in the near future.

Chandrayaan I was launched on a PSLV C11 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on the southeast coast of India. After a series of elliptical orbits around the Earth to secure everything is working fine, the spacecraft will finally end its earth-orbit phase when the spacecraft is some 380,000 km at its furthest point. After reaching the Moon on November 8, Chandrayaan-1 will then be put into a high geosynchronous transfer orbit around the Moon, which is then shrunken down into a circular polar orbit at roughly 100 km altitude above the surface.

The mission is expected to have an operational life of about 2 years and if successful, ISRO will seriously look at launching a robotic rover onboard a Indo-Russian collaborative mission, called Chandrayaan II, to the Moon possibly early in the first quarter of 2013, but before 2016. The rover will be designed to move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do in situ chemical analysis and send the data to the mother-spacecraft Chandrayaan-2 orbiting overhead. Weighing between 30 kg and 100 kg - depending on whether it is to do a semi-hard landing or soft landing - the rover will have an operating life-span of about several months. It will run predominantly on solar power, and if successful, it could later be followed by another at a date yet to be determined. Surface data gathered during the Chandrayaan I mission will be used to determine the target location on the Moon for the lander.

Chandrayaan II will be a three-tonne class satellite that will include a Russian-built lander designed to put the spacecraft safely down on the lunar surface, and a rover (jointly built by India and Russia) with an array of scientific instruments to analyse soil, search for water vapour and deposits of Helium-3. Design of Chadrayaan II was completed in Augusts 2009, and according to resources the mission would have an orbital flight vehicle constituting an Orbital Craft (OC) and a Lunar Craft (LC) that would carry a soft landing system up to Lunar Transfer Trajectory (LTT). There were 11 scientific instruments onboard Chandrayaan I, however, Chandrayaan II will have less.

A $25m deep space network (two dish antennas 32 metres and 18 metres in diameter respectively) installed at Byalu, some 45 kilometres from Bangalore, will keep track of both missions, and provide command support and telemetry for the massive amounts of scientific data expected, and for possible use with future probes that India plan to use for planetary research, such as Mars.

India Space also will look towards getting a man orbiting the Moon sometime in 2015, however, this is an optimistic date as given the timeline above for the Chandrayaan II mission, a manned mission would be much further down the line by several years. From recent reports, however, expressed by ISRO in December 2008, the manned mission could be attempted by 2020 (but, this is still a very optimistic date).

The specific areas of lunar research Chandrayaan I will carry out are:

(a) Take high resolution mineralogical and chemical imaging of permanently shadowed north and south Polar Regions.

(b) Conduct a search for surface or sub-surface water-ice on the moon, especially at the lunar poles.

(c) Try to identify the chemical end members of lunar high land rocks.

(d) Look at the chemical stratigraphy of the lunar crust by remote sensing of the central upland of large lunar craters, the South Pole Aitken Basin region – the largest impact crater in the Solar System – where possible ancient mantle material may lie on the surface.

(e) Map the height variation of the lunar surface features along the satellite track.

(f) Take observations in the X-ray spectrum greater than 10 keV and stereographic coverage of most of the moon's surface with 5 metre resolution, to provide new insights in understanding the moon's origin and evolution.

The payloads include:

(1) The Terrain Mapping stereo Camera (TMC) – that will work in the panchromatic band having 5 metre spatial resolution and 40 km swaths to prepare a high resolution atlas of the moon.

(2) The Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI) – it will operate in the 400-900 nm band with a spectral resolution of 15 nm and spatial resolution of 80 m with a swath of 40 km for mineralogical mapping of the surface.

(3) The Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) – it will be used for determining an accurate altitude of the spacecraft above the lunar surface for topographical mapping.

(4) The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will piggyback on the main orbiter of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft , and later released to impact on the surface of the moon. The Probe will most likely be lunched down onto the surface around 14/15 Nov. 2008 (given that the lunar transfer orbit goes well), and during its descent a radar altimeter will measure its rate of descent, while a spectrometer will measure constituent makeup of the atmosphere as it approaches the surface. All will be captured by a CCD camera onboard.

(5) The High Energy (10-200keV) X-ray/g-ray spectrometer (HEX) – it will have a ground spatial resolution of approximately 20 km and be used for measuring 210Pb, 222Rn degassing, U, Th etc.

Apart from the above indigenous payloads/experiments, ISRO solicited proposals through an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) from International and Indian Scientific Community for participating in the mission by providing suitable scientific payloads complementing the Chandrayaan-1 objectives. Out of the proposals received, six experiments were finally selected for inclusion in Chandrayaan-1 mission -- three from ESA (European Space Agency), two from NASA, and one from Bulgaria.

These AO payloads on-board Chandrayaan I are:

ESA:
(These instruments are identical to those launched onboard ESA's SMART-1 mission to the moon in 2003).

(1) The Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer (CIXS) -- a collaboration between Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK and ISRO Satellite Centre, ISRO. Part of this payload is redesigned by ISRO to suit Chandrayaan-1 scientific objectives.

(2) The Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) -- a Sub KeV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) through ESA, from Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Sweden and Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO. The Data Processing Unit of this payload/ experiment is designed and developed by ISRO, while Swedish Institute of Space Physics develops the payload.

(3) The Near-Infrared Spectrometer (SIR-2) -- a Near Infra Red spectrometer from Max Plank Institute, Lindau, Germany through ESA. It will also contribute to the hardware for the High-Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX)

NASA:
(1) A Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MSAR) by NASA to survey Polar cold lunar regions for possible ice deposits.

(2) A Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M-cubed) from NASA that will use an infrared spectrometer to study the moon's surface mineral composition.

Bulgaria:
An instrument called RODOM -- a Radiation Dose Monitor Experiment (RADOM) from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

For more about the participating groups see here.

Chandrayaan in sanskrit means "Voyage to the Moon", and the total cost of the mission (as of 2007) is roughly costing about $80 million U.S.(~50 times more in Indian Rupees).

UPDATES:

January 2010: Designs for the rover and orbiter have been finalised.

August 2009: Design for the Chandrayaan-2 mission completed.

19 May 2009: Probe raised from 100 km altitude orbit to 200 km circular orbit...problem with imaging surface but chemical and mineral objectives okay.

26 April 2009: Star sensor malfunction...resulting in focusing and steering of probe.

14 November 2008: The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) struck an area around the Moon's South Pole today. It is believed it crashed not far from Shackleton crater, ejecting sub-surface material into the lunar atmosphere for analysis.

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) -- launched 18 June 2009 (USA)

LRO is the first mission implemented under NASA’s Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP) to understand the lunar environment in preparation for establishing a human presence on its surface. Launched by an Atlas 5 401 rocket along with a companion spacecraft called the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) onboard, LRO will accurately map the lunar surface, produce high-resolution images of possible landing sites, and assess potential resources. The data will be of explorative benefit towards establishing the first base on the Moon, which will act as a stepping-off platform for future exploration of other planets in the solar system.

After LRO launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida (expected sometime between May and August 2009), the spent rocket stage and LCROSS (still coupled to each other) will split off from the main orbiter two hours later and independently arrive in a polar orbit around the Moon. As LCROSS, now consisting of two main parts - an upper stage rocket, called Centaur that is sometimes referred to as EDUS (Earth Departure Upper Stage) and a Shepherding Spacecraft, called the S-S/C approaches the moon's South Pole region, Centaur will decouple and line up for impact (as of October 2007, Shackleton was the chosen crater, however, several other craters in the region may be chosen. Centaur is about 2000 kg in weight and should produce a cloud of ejecta some 60 km high up into the moon's atmosphere (roughly, with 200 times greater impact than Lunar Prospector). The anticipated impact velocity of Centaur is roughly going to be 2 km/s at an angle of 70 degrees to the plane of the lunar surface. The S-S/C will then fly through the plume of disturbed material and analyse it for any signs of water and other compounds. Such water resources will prove extremely important if development of a lunar base is ever to be established. Colonists will need water to grow food, produce rocket fuel (from the hydrogen in H2O), and build up oxygen reserves for breathing. Two previous missions, Clementine and Lunar Prospector, detected water ice signatures back in the 1990s but analyses of the data have been a controversial issue since then.

Approximately four minutes later, the 700kg S-S/C itself (sometimes referred to in the media as LCROSS, but see above) will then line up to impact a different part of the crater, releasing a second plume of material 2 million tonnes in quantity, and producing a crater approximately 5 metres in depth and 30 metres wide. Or, NASA may decide to choose another crater - possibly Cabaeus, Faustini or Shoemaker - located at the South Pole. The whole event will be monitored by telescopes on Earth and the LRO orbiting overhead, as well as other space telescopes that will analyse the disturbed material. Some amateur telescopes with diameters from 10 inches upwards should also be able to see the impact, however, these won't be able to obtain spectra of the water vapour unless they are situated at a high altitude and observing in the infrared. The LCROSS concept was chosen out of 19 possible missions and 40 proposals that NASA asked for in April 2006, because it featured the second impact concept.

The LRO orbiter is expected to operate for a year at first in a low (~50 km) polar orbit, exploring potential landing sites for future robotic and human missions to the Moon, and investigate how humans will work/adapt to the unique lunar environment. At low resolution, observations will be made at 100 m per pixel, while at high resolution imaging will be down to 0.5 m per pixel. LRO is being built and managed by Goddard Space  Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Md. LRO will move into its science phase in September 2010, when the program management responsibility moves from the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. LRO will continue to map the moon for two additional years during its science phase with the possibility of two more years of observation following that.

As of April 2008, Goddard are currently investigating two recent proposals chosen from over 55 proposals in response to NASA's Research Announcement released in 2007. The first "Mapping Lunar Surface Electric Fields and Characterizing the Exospheric Dust Environment") will investigate the electrical properties of lunar dust as it moves across the surface due to electric fields, and the second ("Enhancement of Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector Mission Operations and Science Return") will enhance further investigations into the search of hydrogen and water-ice deposits in permanently-shadowed craters at both lunar poles. Both proposals will be backed by instruments onboard LRO, for example, LROC and LAMP (see list of instruments below) will help with the former proposal, while LEND will be used with the latter proposal.

LRO's suite of six instruments (for more on instruments see ~ 2Mb PDF file here) will provide the most comprehensive data set ever returned from the moon.

The selected instruments are:
(1) The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) will determine the global topography of the lunar surface at high resolution, landing site slopes, surface roughness, and possible polar surface ice in shadowed regions.

(2) The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) will acquire targeted narrow angle images of the lunar surface capable of resolving meter-scale features to support landing site selection. LROC will also provide wide angle images to characterize polar illumination conditions that may identify potential resources. LROC consists of two NACs (Narrow Angle Cameras) capable of providing panchromatic images 0.5 metre scale over a 5 km swaths, and a WAC (Wide Angle Camera) capable of providing images at a scale of 100 metres per pixel in seven colour bands over 60 km swaths.

(3) The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) will provide global mapping of the hydrogen content on the lunar surface. LEND measurements will also help characterize the neutron component of the lunar radiation environment. These measurements will also be used to search for evidence of water ice on the lunar surface.

(4) The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE or DIVINER) will measure lunar surface temperature profiles for habitability, determine rock abundances at landing sites by mapping nighttime surface temperatures, map variants in silicate mineralogy, and chart the temperature of the entire lunar surface to identify cold traps and potential ice deposits.

(5) The Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) will map the entire lunar surface in the far ultraviolet, providing images of permanently shadowed regions that are illuminated only by starlight, and will search for surface ice and frost in the polar regions.

(6) The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) will investigate the effects of galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles on tissue-equivalent plastics. CRaTER will characterize the deep space radiation environment and provide a baseline to the amount of radiation humans could be exposed to.

LCROSS's suite of instruments includes 5 cameras (1 visible, 2 Near IR, 2 Mid IR), three spectrometers (1 visible, 2 NIR) and one photometer.

Cameras: - VisCam, NIRCamA, NIRCamB, MIRCamA, MIRCamB -- see more on LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera).

Spectrometers: - VisSpec, NIRSpecA, NIRSpecB

Photometer: - TLP (Total Luminescent Photometer)

For more information about these LCROSS instruments see here.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the first of many robotic missions NASA will conduct to study the Moon between 2009 and 2016 under its “Vision for Space Exploration”. Costing approximately $616m (2007 quote) in total for both LRO and LCROSS, the mission is expected to last up to 14 months initially, however, depending on the condition of the spacecraft and finances available, its lifetime could be extended up to four more years.

NASA's future plans

Under NASA's Lunar Architecture Team, chartered in May 2006, several robotic missions to the Moon would first carry out landing site reconnaissance surveys on the surface, followed by study of natural resource assays and technology risk reduction for a human lander. A solar-powered lunar base located near near one of the moon's poles would then be constructed over several manned missions to the Moon -- each mission involving four-man crews on seven-day trips, until essential power supplies, rovers and living quarters are operational.

A typical approach towards developing the base would go along the lines of:
(1) The heavy-lift Ares 5 rocket blasts off from Earth carrying a lunar lander and a "departure stage".
(2) Several days later, astronauts launch on an Ares 1 rocket inside their Orion vehicle (CEV).
(3) The Orion docks with the lander and departure stage in Earth orbit and then heads to the Moon.
(4) Having done its job of boosting the Orion and lunar lander on their way, the departure stage is jettisoned.
(5) At the moon, the astronauts leave the Orion and enter the lander for the trip to the lunar surface.
(6) After exploring the lunar landscape for seven days, the crew blasts off in a portion of the lander.
(7) In moon orbit, they re-join the waiting robot-minded Orion and begin the journey back to Earth.
(8) On the way, the service component of the Orion is jettisoned. This leaves just the crew capsule to enter the atmosphere.
(9) A heatshield protects the capsule; parachutes bring it down on dry land, probably in California. (See news item on NASA's Ares and the Constellation Programme here).

The first mission would begin by 2020, and by 2024 astronauts could be spending up to 30-day residential missions, increasing to 180-day missions. NASA's main aim is to learn more about: the moon's natural resources; conduct a wide range of scientific investigations and encourage international participation. By 2025, NASA hopes to have developed the capabilities required to enable further steps into space - possibly expanding lunar exploration and/or manned missions to Mars.

Note, the space shuttle is expected to be decommissioned in late September 2010, however, recent announcements (13 August 2008) by NASA say the Orion spacecraft that is set to replace the shuttle (and was to launch in September 2013) will now launch on of before 2014 to the ISS. The delay, says NASA, is due to technical and budgetary problems, however, if this delay extends beyond predicted deadlines in other programs and in other areas, then using the Orion to go to the Moon will surely set back that timeline, too.

The six key areas NASA has for lunar exploration are:
(1) To extend human presence to the Moon to enable eventual settlement.
(2) To pursue scientific activities that address fundamental questions about the history of Earth, the Solar System and the Universe.
(3) To test technologies, systems, flight operations and exploration techniques to reduce the risks and increase the productivity of future missions to Mars and beyond.
(4) To provide a challenging, shared and peaceful activity that unites nations in pursuit of common objectives.
(5) To expand earth's economic sphere, and conduct lunar activities with benefits to life on the home planet.
(6) To use a vibrant space exploration programme to engage the public, encourage students and help develop the high-tech workforce that will be required to address the challenges of tomorrow.

Following the 3rd joint ESA/ASI workshop on international cooperation for sustainable space exploration held in Italy on the 31 May 2007, NASA and the top 13 space agencies from around the world have published their agreed vision for the Moon, Mars and beyond. Called “The Global Exploration Strategy: The Framework for Co-ordination” (PDF file), chapter 4 of the document indicates scientific exploration of the Moon involving three types of investigations: science “of the Moon”, science “from the Moon”, and science “on the Moon”.

UPDATES:

April 2010:

May 2009: A new review panel on human spaceflight to be formed this month will report on the current status of NASA activities and plans for future exploration of the Moon. The results are expected to be out this August.

18 June 2009: The LRO/LCROSS spacecraft was launched today.

2 July 2009: First images returned from Moon.

9 October 2009: Both the LCROSS and the SSC impacted the Moon today.

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

GRAIL & LADEE -- launch 2012 (USA)

NASA's GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) mission will use two satellites flying in formation to monitor how gravity anomalies of features both on and under the lunar surface affect their relative orbits. The data, gleaned over a three-four month period, will reveal information about the moon's crust and possible core, and indirectly produce facts about its thermal history. Based on technology and instruments currently being used on the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) mission, the two satellites will map the entire surface of the Moon upto a thousand times more accurately than past and existing lunar orbiters.

The gravity field measurements are recorded by monitoring how the exact timing of a relayed radio (Ka-band) signal between both satellites is affected as they pass over a feature on the surface. So, for example, if the satellites happen to pass over a thicker part of the lunar crust (perhaps a mountainous region) than a thinner region (like a crater), the additional mass of the former would have a greater gravity effect on each satellite than would the latter. As a result, the motion of the first satellite may be perturbed to that of the second; producing a slight change in the distance between the two and a change in the timing of the relayed signal. These changes are constantly monitored throughout, and all the data is sent back to Earth for further analysis.

Gravity anomalies of the lunar surface were first discovered during the orbital flight of the Russian built Luna 10 spacecraft that launched in 1966. As the probe orbited overhead, slight changes in its altitude were noticed to change. The odd behaviour was later recognised as the first ever evidence of mass concentrations, called 'mascons', whose gravity and concentration were producing a slight pull on the orbiting probe. Later, other probes like the Lunar Orbiters were also affected, and todate many more mascons have been discovered nearly all over the Moon (particularly underneath the major impact basins). While their formation are not quite understood, it's theorised that they may be the result of the additional mass added to the basins as lava flowed into them, or, they be caused by the initial impact itself where the lunar mantle became upwarped producing heavier rocks to concentrate underneath them.

The data could thus reveal several characteristics about the lunar surface and subsurface that it passed over; revealing hidden features not previously observed by current orbiting spacecraft. GRAIL also has the potential to reveal aspects of the surface lunar rocks; disclosing details about their density, their possible material makeup, and most importantly the history of their formation relative to the surrounding terrain. The satellites, working in tandem together, thus have the potential to answer fundamental questions about the moon's internal structure and its possible core which todate is still not quite fully understood as not enough data exist.

The moon's surface has been pummelled through several major bombardments since it formed some 4.5 billion years. The last major bombardment (the Late Heavy Bombardment period) ended some 3.85 billions ago, and ever since then the surface has remained insignificantly modified as left-over objects striking the surface has slowed down to the present date. As a result, the moon's surface holds one of the best-preserved records of events of the early solar system; serving as a marker-object for understanding the history associated with the inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The gleaned gravitational data will also be used for future manned and unmanned missions to the Moon; helping in areas of targeting potential landing sites.

GRAIL's orbital manoeuvres will initially involve a three to four low-energy trans-lunar cruise phase, until finally both satellites are lined up correctly in a polar orbit to begin their science phase. Orbiting close to 30 km in altitude above the surface in a near-circular orbit, the expected results will be high enough to produce a high-accuracy (< 10 mGal), high-resolution gravity map of the entire lunar surface. The gravity instruments onboard are upto to three orders of magnitude more sensitive than those being used on the Japanese KAGUYA spacecraft presently orbiting the Moon, and will have the ability to map squares down to resolutions of 20 kilometres - nearly four times better than KAGUYA.

On the outreach side of things to be managed by former astronaut, Sally Ride (who in 1983 became the first American woman to reach outer space on the Space Shuttle Challenger STS-7 mission), will lead an educational phase for young students to get involved. Using five MoonKam cameras installed onboard each satellite, the outreach program is being organised to get students involved more with lunar research activities at a basic level. The cameras will allow the students to take still and video close-up images of the surface as the satellites orbit around the Moon.

LADEE
A secondary payload, called LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer), may also piggyback along with GRAIL at launch time. LADEE is a small atmospheric/dust orbiter, and its main science objectives are to study the tenuous atmosphere of the Moon; measuring its environment for dust and other elements before it is perturbed by future human activity. It will also try to determine if the observed sightings (as reported by Apollo astronauts) of diffuse emissions some 10s of kilometres above the lunar surface were those of Na (Sodium) emissions from the surface, or were, in fact, just caused by dust.

LADEE will use a dust-counter and neutral mass spectrometer to examine the composition of the moon's tenuous atmosphere which is made up of gases and dust particles. Most of these gases and particles are due to capture by the solar wind and of material released from the surface by impact of objects like comets and asteroids. Some of the lighter gases, for example, helium, escape to space while more heavier forms eventually become ionised by the sun's ultraviolet radiation and then carried away from the Moon by the solar wind. The rate at which these are sourced and escape isn't known right now (other means could be due to outgassing from the moon's interior by seismic activity), so LADEE will measure this rate and their individual composition before forthcoming landing missions and other human activities on the Moon have time to confuse the results.

LADEE is a small, four-tier mission ($200m - 2010 estimate). Currently two instruments -- the neutral mass spectrometer (NMS) and lunar dust experiment (LDEX) -- are envisioned, however, NASA may put on an additional atmospheric instrument - depending on the orbital elements that are now designed to go on it versus the payload mass (the total must not exceed 20 kg) and mission length (100 to 130 days). The orbiter will be placed into a low orbit of about 50 km (and down to 20 km at times) above the surface for upto four months (one month of check-out, and three months of data collection).

The bottom two tiers will house the propulsion system, with the other top two holding other systems, for example, the fourth tier will hold an ultraviolet spectometer (a variant type instrument as used on the LCROSS mission).

The $375m GRAIL satellites will be built and operated by Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, Colorado (this company has been involved with a lunar mission already when they designed and built the Lunar Prospector spacecraft). NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, will handle project management and development of the communications and navigation systems. The $88m LADEE satellite, on the other hand, will be managed by NASA’s Ames Research Centre with its program office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre (MSFC) in Alabama.

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

ARTEMIS -- 2010 - 2012 (USA)

When the five THEMIS ("Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms") probes end their initial mission in 2009, two of the five may end up being put into orbit around the Moon. The two-probe mission will be called ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun), and will study the moon’s exosphere and aspects of its lunar wake.

THEMIS was launched on 17 February in 2007 to study instabilities of solar wind energy stored within the Earth’s magnetotail – a region of space on Earth’s dark side where twin bundles of oppositely directed magnetic fields stretch for upto 200 Earth radii (RE). These instabilities accompany intense magnetic space storms which are known to disrupt communications satellites, and produce intense penetrating radiation around Earth –sometimes identified by aurora displays. Each of the five probes (P1 – P5) currently lies in highly elliptical orbits - at various distances around Earth so that they can study different regions of the magnetotail.

If NASA should decide to go ahead with ARTEMIS (currently pending a technical review before February 2009), they will then raise the furthest probes, P1 and P2 (lying at ~30 RE and 20 RE respectively), into higher orbits until the moon’s gravity is strong enough to capture them.

The manoeuvres, which are expected to take over a year or so through a series of lunar swingbys and translunar injections, will place each probe into much larger arcs that will then loop back around the Moon. The configuration should eventually put both probes in highly elliptical (100 x 18,000km altitude), one-day period, equatorial orbits around the Moon; suitably placed for observing its exosphere through various inter-probe separations.

While ARTEMIS will still continue to study the solar wind and magnetic environment of Earth’s magnetotail with the other three probes (now called THEMIS-Low) at a distance of ~ 60 RE, the Moon part of its mission will be in determining the three-dimensional structure of the lunar wake.

What is the lunar wake?

Throughout the whole Solar System, billions of charged particles (plasma) eject off the Sun’s upper atmosphere very second. The particles – predominantly made up of electrons (negative charge) and protons (positive charge) – make up what we now know to be the solar wind, and they constantly bombard every planet and moon that lies in their paths.

Planets with an atmosphere and a magnetic field around them (that produces a 'magnetosphere') – like Earth or Jupiter – can deflect, in part, the charged particles so that they go around them. However if a planet, like we see with Mercury or Venus, has no magnetosphere or does but is weak, the charged particles are able to strip away the atmosphere and strike the surface full on.

As the Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere or magnetic field to speak of, its surface therefore gets the full blast of the solar wind. As the moon’s sunward-facing side absorbs more of the particles than does its nightside, the resulting effect produces a kind of void – the lunar wake – which trails for thousands of kilometres in the anti-sunward (tail) direction.

Some years ago the Wind and Lunar Prospector spacecrafts looked at the wake tail and found there were beams of accelerated ions merging some 5 to 10 lunar radii downstream. The beams were found to be consistent with concentrations of electric fields near the wake’s flanks (roughly, the moon’s limb regions), producing a type of ‘braking’ effect which then ‘filled in’ (replenished) on itself with the plasma.

The exact mechanism of the wake’s formation, its dynamics, or its electric fields at the flanks isn’t quite fully understood, so passing ARTEMIS’s two probes into the region would be of extreme importance for study of the basic plasma and filling processes. Conditions are changing all the time in the wake, so ARTEMIS will have the ability to observe these changes and get a better picture of the overall processes involved; particularly more so now as we head into a solar maximum period.

Moreover, measurements of magnetic anomalies underneath the surface could also be taken, along with analyses of electric field effects on dust particle accelerations on and just above the soil (the regolith). For example, observations made by Apollo 17’s LEAM (Lunar Ejecta And Meteorite) system detected dust lifting some metres above the surface and move around as electrostatic charges changed due to day and night dynamics on the terminator. It’s of relevance to understand the causes in the accelerated particles – thought to be related to flank electric fields (technically called the ambipolar E-fields) – as they could affect future sitting of a lunar base.

The probes will work alongside other orbiting spacecrafts – Cluster, Geotail, THEMIS-Low – as they investigate the solar wind and magnetosphere around Earth, but generally, ARTEMIS's main moon objective will be to measure various areas of interest on interaction of the solar wind with its exosphere and wake.

Instruments of ARTEMIS

Each probe is identical and carries a suite of scientific instruments; including magnetometers for studying variations in magnetic fields and electrical equipment for measuring electric fields.

The current set of instruments onboard each probe consists of:

EFI (Electrical Field Instruments) – measures electric fields in three directions.

ESA (Electrostatic Analyzers) – having two on each probe, the first measures ions, the second measure electrons. Both provide a 3-dimensional view of the particle distribution, along with measurements of their velocity, density and ambient temperature 

FGM (Fluxgate Magnetometers) – measures background magnetic fields and variations within accuracy of 0.01nT.

SCM (Search Coil Magnetometers) – measures low frequency magnetic fields fluctuations.

SST (Solid State Telescope) – measures the number and energy of ions and electrons coming towards the probe from specified directions.

If all goes well with the pending technical review before February 2009, ARTEMIS‘s mission lifetime will perform measurements in the lunar environment from October 2010 until September 2012. More about ARTEMIS here (PDF file).

NB. This ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon's Interaction with the Sun) mission should not be confused with the European Space Agency’s Artemis (Advanced Relay and Technology Mission) spacecraft or the Artemis Moonbase Project.

UPDATES:

8 December 2009: P1 successfully performs its first lunar flyby. The next flyby of P1 will be on 31 January 2010 while P2's first lunar flyby will be on 28 March 2010.

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

Luna-Glob -- launch 2012 (RUSSIA)

Luna-Glob is Russia’s return mission back to the moon for over 30 years since their last lunar research program ended with Luna 24 in 1976. The Luna-Glob mission objectives include:

(1) Set a lander down near the South Pole Aitkin Basin region to search for signs of water ice deposits.

(2) Impact two slow-descending penetrator/landers in regions near where Apollo's 11 and 12 spacecrafts landed in 1969, so as to collect and compare data about seismic moonquakes.

(3) Impact 10 fast-descending penetrators somewhere near Mare Faecunditatis (Sea of Fertility) to collect data about surface seismic moonquakes.

Four days after being launched as Luna-Glob approaches the moon, a capsule containing the 10 fast-descending penetrators will be released and directed towards Mare Faecunditatis – its target region. After set spinning to stabilise it for approach, five of the ten missile-shaped penetrators will be released when the capsule is 700 km altitude above the surface. These slowly begin to fan out as they descend, however, with the capsule still following behind, the remaining five penetrators are then released when it reaches an altitude of 350 km.

The first set of five should begin to impact the surface some four minutes after being released, followed a few minutes later by the second set (and the spent capsule, too). Striking the surface at nearly 3 km/sec, the penetrators will impact a few metres into the lunar soil (the regolith) leaving a communications antenna on the surface. All penetrators are designed to survive the impact – the first set should span a region of up to 10 km in diameter, and the second set about 5 km. Each will operate as an interconnected network that can relay seismic data back to the main Luna-Glob spacecraft orbiting overhead.

After the penetrator side of the mission has been accomplished, the next phase of Luna-Glob’s objective will be to line up for release of the two penetrator/landers over the Apollo 11 and 12 sites – Mare Tranquillitatis (0.674 N, 23.473 E) and Oceanus Procellarum (3.014 S, 23.419 W) respectively. Carrying more advanced instruments and sensors onboard, the two penetrator/landers will use braking rockets to greatly slow down their descent. At 2 km above the lunar surface, the penetrator/landers will separate from the braking rockets and freefall down onto the surface, impacting at a much slower speed than the previous 10 penetrators.

Like before, an antenna remains on the surface from each penetrator/lander, and these act as the communications link to the orbiter overhead; transmitting seismic data of the moon’s deep interior and core. By comparing the new data with older data from the Apollo missions, information about the moon’s origin and evolution will be gleaned. The two penetrator/landers may be made up from sensors previously built for the cancelled Japanese missions, LUNAR-A, that was to study the lunar interior using seismometers and heat-flow probes deployed on to the lunar surface -- one on the nearside, and another on the farside.

Luna-Glob’s last objective to put a lander into a crater near the South Pole region will first involve changing its orbit from equatorial to polar. Using braking rockets and an airbag setup, the lander when released will land gently down onto the surface and start to take measurements using a suite of instruments that include spectrometers for detection of the water ice deposits. The data will be relayed back up to the main orbiter, and hopes are that the signatures will be positive. Some craters remain in permanent shadow at the south pole and may harbour these water-ice deposits, or different kinds of ice, for example, iced water, CO2 water, ammonia water, ice of other molecules. As water is an essential factor for establishing a lunar base, the potential reserves would be of enormous benefit and make a huge saving to construction and maintenance of the future lunar base. Water can be used as a resource for oxygen (O) to breath and for fuel (H) to propel rockets back to Earth and run machinery at the base. It could also be used for production of food, and in some cases be applicable as a shield for the prevention of dangerous radiation reaching astronauts working in above-surface laboratories for long periods. Moreover, there wouldn't be a need for additional launches to ferry water from Earth to the Moon if reserves were found - freeing up financial constraints for more important areas in the construction of the lunar base.

Luna-Glob is based on plans dating back to 1997. Due to financial problems, however, the project was put on hold only to be revived a few years ago. The mission forms part of the Russian Federal Space Agency’s 2006-2015 program that received an approved budget of Roubles305 billion (~ $11 billion) from an overall space expenditure of Roubles425 billion. The budget for 2006 was as high as Roubles25 billion, which is a 33% increase from the 2005 budget. Under the current 10 year budget approved, the budget of the Space Agency shall increase 5-10% per year. When the program is concluded in 2015, the agency may cooperate and assist with other space agencies, like India and China, in their unmanned lunar research programs, as well as manned missions that are likely to take place after 2025 and a permanent station set up in 2028-2032 (Russia recently signed a contract with China National Space Administration (CNSA) to implement an agreement for a joint study of Phobos and Mars possibly after 2035).

UPDATES:

April 2009: Roscosmos has just unveiled plans to launch a spacecraft that will be capable of carrying up to four people to the Moon. Called the Prospective Piloted Transport System (PPTS), it will replace the three-person Soyuz spacecraft. PPTS is designed to return to Earth.

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

Lunar Explorer Orbiter (LEO) -- (GERMANY)

The Lunar Explorer Orbiter (LEO) is the first in the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) plans to send an unmanned mission to the Moon. Involving two spacecraft launched together as one – the first spacecraft will be able to ‘see’ beneath the lunar surface using microwave and radar instruments, while the second will be capable of producing three-dimensional views (and in colour) of the moon’s weak gravitational and magnetic fields. Several spectrometers onboard both crafts will also view the Moon through a broad range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum – resulting in high-resolution maps of the lunar surface. Moreover, because the mission is expected to last for upto four years, LEO will be able to discover new impact craters created by objects striking the surface, using a unique camera, called SPOSH, which can detect fresh material and dust scattered across the lunar surface. All in all, LEO will globally map the entire Moon (above and below), giving a new perspective about its composition, its mineralogy, its regolith structure, as well as its thermal history and physical properties.

Transfer of LEO into its correct orbit around the moon is expected to take upto five days. Thereafter, the two spacecraft will then separate and be put into identical orbits, separated by tens of kilometres. This formation allows for precise micrometer tracking between both crafts over a two month commissioning phase before, finally, they begin to work together in taking serious data from the Moon.

The microwave and radar instruments will be capable of 'viewing' structures upto two metres across beneath the lunar surface up to a depth of a few hundred metres down, while at shallower depths of two metres down, formation of the lunar soil (the regolith) will be looked at a millimetre scale level. Both observations together will reveal the distribution of rocks and particles in minute detail, and produce a possible history about how and why they formed. The data could also provide information about potential mineral deposits and rare isotopes like helium-3, which could later be mined for as more advanced missions land on the Moon. Helium-3, which is rare on earth, is produced in the Sun and is blown onto the surface of the moon through means of the solar wind. While currently it is seen as a potential resource for fuel in fusion power reactors on Earth (and lauded in the media as one of the main reasons for going back to the moon), controversy surrounds its use as a viable option (see Physics World article here). 

LEO originated initially from the national conference “Exploration of our Solar System”, held in Dresden in November 2006, and the estimated costs of Euro300m over five years will provide Germany with future opportunities for landing missions to the moon. Precise details about the LEO mission will be announced in early 2008, giving the German Government time to decide whether it has the necessary finances to carry it out. If successful, Germany’s role could later see future probes launched to the Moon; deploying landers on the surface and return samples of the surface back to Earth.

Note: As of September 2008, necessary 2009 funds not being allocated for development of the mission by the German Ministry for Economy and Technology has caused some concern amongst German scientists. Upto sixty-nine of Germany’s leading scientists have signed a declaration in support of it's case being looked at seriously. For more, see here.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.) is the national research center for aviation and space flight of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Space Agency. It administers the space budget of the German government, which totals some Euro846m.

UPDATES:

13 August 2009: The LEO mission was previously cancelled last year, however, Germany still sees potential launch to the Moon.

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

MoonLITE -- launch 2014 (UNITED KINGDOM)

MoonLITE is the United Kingdom's first independent, low-cost mission-attempt to put an orbiter around the Moon, and deploy a seismic network of four micro-penetrators onto the lunar surface. The orbiter will be used to demonstrate communications and navigation technologies for future exploration missions, while each penetrator will investigate areas as diverse as moonquakes, the heat-flow of the moon's interior, and the presence of water and other volatiles. Duration of the MoonLITE mission is designed to operate for about one year; which may be extended to several years, depending on the state of health of the seismic network afterwards.

MoonLITE's final flight orientation after an initial three-day transfer insertion around the Moon is set to be a 100 km circular polar orbit above the lunar surface. There, it will operate its two S-band ranging receivers (0.5-4 kbps using a 10 cm patch antenna) and transmitters (0.4-2 kbps using a 15 cm patch antenna) for communication with Earth ground stations, and use a single high data rate Ku-band receiver (10 Mbps) to provide telecommunications relay for the penetrators from the lunar surface. The telecommunication infrastructure on MoonLITE will be designed for future lunar exploration, and will be compatible with other lunar orbiters and robotic landers launched later by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Penetrators and the Seismic Network
Deployment of the four micro-penetrators to form the seismic network will be widely spaced around the Moon at different landing sites. Two of the penetrators will land somewhere on the nearside of the Moon (the side that continually faces our Earth), with the remaining two each landing at a site to be chosen on the farside and the lunar South Pole respectively.

Each penetrator - weighing roughly 13 kg (including a 3 kg science payload) and with 23 kg of propulsion - will initially be manoeuvred into a trajectory some 40 km above the lunar surface. Using additional attitude controls and a secondary burn to slow the penetrators down to near zero velocity, each will strike their target landing site at nearly 300 metres per second in an orientation close to vertical. At such speed and orientation, the probes as expected to penetrate to a depth of a few metres down into the lunar surface on impact, where they will then begin their science operations. Upto 30 kbits of data per day will be up-linked to the orbiter overhead, and this is then transmitted to the monitoring stations on Earth for further analysis.

The scientific payloads on the penetrators will look at several areas of lunar interest, for example, lunar seismology, heat flow within the lunar interior, water and other volatiles under the surface, and characteristic studies of rocks and soil on the farside of the Moon.

(1) Lunar seismology:
The micro-seismometers will be used to detect shallow moonquakes - very rare quakes on the Moon which are very strong (registering about 5.5 on earth's Richter scale). Shallow moonquakes occur in the upper mantle at depths between 50 to 200 km, and are believed to be caused by the release of thermoelastic strain of the moon's lithosphere as it cools. The seismometers will investigate these areas more precisely, but they will also be used to measure the size of the lunar core (if it has one), determine close approximations of the crustal thickness of the Moon globally (the farside crust of the Moon is nearly twice as thick as the nearside crust), and obtain a greater understanding of the moon's residual magnetic field.

(2) Thermal heat flow within the moon's interior:
Passive thermometers in the penetrators will investigate the dynamics of heat flow within the lunar interior, and give a better understanding about the moon's early thermal history. Decay of radioactive elements like thorium and uranium have been known to heat up the interior of other planets and other moons in our Solar System, however, the extent of such processes deep inside the moon's interior isn't quite fully understood. The process may have been responsible for the heating up of mantle material some 3.8 billion years ago, which eventually erupted onto the lunar surface as extensive sheets of lava - producing the familiar maria we see on the Moon today.

(3) Water and other volatiles at the lunar South Pole:
Sensors inside the penetrator that will land at the South Pole site (possible in the Aitken Basin) will be capable of detecting the presence, extent, and concentration of water and other volatiles in the lunar soil. Some regions at the South Pole remain in permanent shadow and it's believed that water-ice deposits, or different kinds of water-ice, for example, iced water, CO2 water, ammonia water, ice of other molecules etc., remain lodged metres down in the soil. Such deposits are believed to have been delivered onto the lunar surface by impacting comets and water-rich asteroids, and may still exist at both pole regions. A previous mission, called Lunar Prospector, some years ago indicated that there were potential deposits, but later analysis of the regions by radar instruments on Earth indicated none existed. As a result, controversy surrounds their true extent.

(4) Farside characteristics:
The farside of the Moon cannot be observed using Earth-based instruments because its monthly rotation on its axis along with its monthly orbital revolution around our planet are synchronously-locked with Earth. Little was known about the farside for a long time until Russian probes (e.g. Luna 3 in October 1959) returned images of upto 70 per-cent of its elusive surface. Later probes like the Lunar Orbiters during the mid 60s attained good views of the farside and showed a face of the Moon that lacked the widespread dark maria common on the nearside. The Apollo astronauts also took photographs of the farside (no Apollo missions landed there) as they orbited overhead, and in 1994, with launch of the Clementine spacecraft, the farside of the Moon was no longer a mystery in terms of its surface details.

Several probes crashed onto the farside during the 1960s (e.g. Ranger 4, Lunar Orbiter 1), however, they didn't return any useful information about its surface or crust. The only information we have today of the structure of the farside, ironically, come from seismometers left on the nearside by the Apollo series of missions during 1969 to 1972. They indirectly returned results about its crust thickness (~ 150 km as opposed to ~ 80 km on the nearside) and about deep moonquakes occurring at depths of between 700 to 1200 km in separate groups known as 'hypocentres'. Their locations haven't been precisely measured, so MoonLITE's farside penetrator thus has the unique opportunity to monitor such activities, and use its seismic network to produce new data about the region's structure and interior on the farside of the Moon.

Micro-penetrators
Micro-penetrator technology for the MoonLITE mission has been gathered through a national consortium of academic institutions and industrial companies. They include:

(1) Birbeck College London -- involved with lunar science
(2) Imperial College London -- involved with the seismometers.
(3) Lancaster University -- involved with lunar science.
(4) Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL)-- involved with the science and instrument interface requirements, landing site selection, science operations and payload system design.
(5) Open University -- involved with science and instrumentation.
(6) QinetiQ -- involved with the impact, power and communications technologies.
(7) Southampton University -- involved with optical fibres.
(8) Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) -- involved with MoonLITE's design study, most particularly in areas of planning of the mission, delivery and communications, and other technical issues associated attachment to spacecraft, descent manoeuvre and operations. Together with the Surrey Space Centre, and funded by the then UK's Government's *PPARC - the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, (SSTL) has been involved into a feasibility study of a low-cost UK-led lunar mission since 2006.
(9) Surrey Space Centre (SSC) -- involved with the platform and instruments.
(10) University of Leicester - involved with geochemical sensors.

The UK penetrator consortium is currently investigating some key design and development issues with the micro-penetrators (see here for more information about their use).

*PPARC:
From 1 April 2007 PPARC merged with CCLRC to form the Science and Technology Facilities Council

MoonLITE's overall construction and development will be based around a low cost-effective philosophy that the UK are currently adopting. Using low mass instrumentation (the penetrator design is based around the Japanese Lunar-A penetrator), along with UK expertise and know-how in constructing geostationary mini-satellites (SSTL constructed the **Giove-A satellite which MoonLITE is based upon), the total launch mass ~ 846 kg and costs are expected to be greatly reduced.

**Giove-A satellite:
The Giove-A satellite was constructed by SSTL under contract to ESA, and successfully launched on 28 December 2005 on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It was SSTL's first satellite designed around their new Geostationary Minisatellite Platform satellite bus, and their first to use deployable sun-tracking solar arrays. NB. A slight modification in design will be made to MoonLITE's solar array, where only one will be used to supply the necessary power requirements.

For the most recent documents in relation to the UK's involvement in space exploration see (A) and (B) below:

(A) Space Exploration Working Group (PDF file).

(B) Global Exploration Strategy (PDF file).

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top

MoonRise -- launch 2019 (USA)

MoonRise is a robotically controlled unmanned lander designed to collect upto 2 kilograms of lunar surface samples from the South Pole Aitken Basin (SPA-B) on  the Moon and return them to Earth. The main goal is to determine how old the material is at SPA-B -- known to be the second largest impact basin (~ 2500 km in diameter) in the Solar System, and analyse its composition; particularly the oldest preserved part that comprises the melt-sheet floor. The samples would let scientists understand better the complex dynamics involved with creation of such large basins on the Moon, and give some idea as to the environment in which it formed. MoonRise is just one of three proposed missions that NASA will look at in 2010, and is being led by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis. The principal investigator (as of Jan 2010) is Bradley Jolliff -- a research professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, who also is co-investigator on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera system onboard LRO. 

Author's note: If you have used this resource for your research or article, I would appreciate mention of the site (www.moonposter.ie). I currently run this lunar resource with no support, so if you want to help then please do think of purchasing an Atlas, Poster or Globe CD. If these aren't items that you require, then maybe a friend, colleague or institution might benefit from one? In either case -- thanks for your interest! Top