Silicon Valley Goes to the Moon: Lunar Prospector in Lunar Orbit
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 11, 1998--Early this morning, a small spacecraft from Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space in Sunnyvale, CA went into orbit around the Moon. Lunar Prospector was launched atop a Lockheed Martin Athena II launch vehicle from Pad 46 at Cape Canaveral on Tuesday evening, January 6th.
On Monday morning, an orbit adjustment will put the spacecraft in a planned 210 minute elliptical orbit. On Tuesday morning, a final command will place Lunar Prospector in a circular 118 minute, 100 kilometer (63 mile), mapping orbit.
During a one-year polar orbiting mission, Lunar Prospector will map the Moon's surface composition, gravity and magnetic fields, and volatile release activity. It will also measure the existence or absence of water ice in the Moon's polar regions.
''We are extremely pleased with the effort put forth on Lunar Prospector and proud to be a part of NASA's exploration of the Moon,'' says Mike Henshaw, president of Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, where the spacecraft was designed and built. ''We put a detailed program in place, met the schedule, and maintained cost control while proceeding from hardware development through spacecraft test in just 22 months. This mission will give NASA more science for the dollar than ever before.''
''Our little spacecraft has been working like a charm,'' says Dr. Alan Binder, Lunar Prospector principal investigator and director of the Lunar Research Institute. ''Flying to the Moon has gone far smoother than I could have hoped.''
The Lunar Prospector mission is a joint effort of Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, NASA Ames Research Center of Moffett Field, CA, and the Lunar Research Institute of Gilroy, CA. Additional important contributions came from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.C. Berkeley Space Science Laboratory, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The Athena II launch vehicle was produced by Lockheed Martin Astronautics based in Denver, CO.
''Lunar Prospector has served as a model for new ways of doing business,'' says NASA mission manager Scott Hubbard of Ames Research Center. ''This mission has made history in terms of management style, technical approach, cost management and focused science. The only way to do a tightly cost-constrained program is to let the contractor focus on doing the job, take responsibility for it, and streamline management 'overhead.'''
''In that context,'' continues Hubbard, ''our job at NASA Ames has been to combine programmatic oversight with technical insight. We paid close attention to the progress of the program and got involved in any areas which had the potential to delay schedule, raise cost or significantly degrade the science return. NASA is the customer for Lunar Prospector data and the Mission Office has had the responsibility to maximize science per dollar.''
NASA Ames also has the responsibility to carry out navigation, analysis, tracking and the organization of the operations center, and will serve as co-investigator on the gamma-ray spectrometer.
Missiles & Space used the products and services of 25 Silicon Valley businesses to help achieve NASA's Discovery Program goals of minimized risk, lower costs, and rapid turnaround. Thorough testing of Lunar Prospector was vital to those goals. To that end, Hewlett-Packard Company [NYSE:HWP - news] created a custom test system employing off-the-shelf components and concurrent engineering techniques. HP's Lunar Prospector Electrical Test Set powered and tested the spacecraft during manufacturing and was used to monitor critical sensors prior to launch at Cape Canaveral.
At the Moon, Lunar Prospector will settle into a circular, 118-minute, 63-mile altitude, polar-mapping orbit to begin its one-year mission. The small scientific spacecraft is a spin-stabilized vehicle with a fully-fueled mass of 663 pounds, is 4.6 feet in diameter and 4.1 feet in axial length, with solar cells mounted on its outer surface providing 206 watts of power. If maneuvering fuel is available at the end of the one-year nominal mission, lunar mapping may be extended at lower altitudes over areas of special interest. When the fuel needed for orbital maintenance is depleted, the spacecraft will impact the lunar surface.
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space is a leading supplier of satellites and remote sensing systems to military, civil government and commercial communications organizations around the world. These spacecraft have enhanced communications, provided extensive remote-sensing information, and furnished data for scientists studying our planet and the universe. Lockheed Martin Astronautics designs, develops, tests and manufactures a variety of advanced technology systems for space and defense. Chief products include planetary spacecraft and other space systems, space launch systems and ground systems.
Missiles & Space and Astronautics are operating units of Lockheed Martin's Space & Strategic Missiles Sector headquartered in Bethesda, MD.
LUNAR PROSPECTOR EXPERIMENTS
Five scientific instruments are mounted on three booms to isolate them from the bus and simplify the spacecraft-instrument interfaces. The experiments were chosen for their scientific value, ability to be flown on a simple, spin-stabilized spacecraft, and low mass, power and data rate requirements.
A gamma-ray spectrometer will provide global maps of the elemental composition of the surface layer of the Moon. Knowledge of the concentrations of such elements as uranium, thorium, potassium, iron, titanium, oxygen, silicon, aluminum, magnesium and calcium will aid in understanding the composition and evolution of the lunar crust.
A neutron spectrometer will have the capability to locate as little as one cup of water in about a cubic yard of lunar soil. The discovery of lunar polar ice would mean that water, necessary for life support and as a source of both oxygen and hydrogen to produce rocket propellant, would be available on site for future lunar explorers.
An alpha particle spectrometer will measure gas release events, providing information on the level of tectonic and volcanic activity on the Moon. The instrument will map the locations and frequency of radon gas on the Moon, thought to be tectonically and volcanically dead until the Apollo series of missions.
A magnetometer and electron reflectometer will map local lunar magnetic fields, known to be weak compared to the global magnetic field of the Earth. This will help determine the origin of such fields and may provide information on the size and composition of the lunar core.
The Doppler gravity experiment will provide the first complete gravity map of the Moon -- essential for planning future lunar missions. It will also provide data on density differences in the crust, internal densities and the nature of the core.
SILICON VALLEY GOES TO THE MOON: LUNAR PROSPECTOR TEAM MEMBERS
Twenty-six Silicon Valley companies and institutions contributed to the construction and testing of the Lunar Prospector spacecraft.
Ames Research Center, Mountain View -- NASA mission management
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, Sunnyvale -- spacecraft design and construction
Lunar Research Institute, Gilroy -- mission design, planning and management
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto -- Lunar Prospector Electrical Test Set
Andataco, Palo Alto -- network storage solutions
Byington Steel Treating, Inc., Santa Clara -- spacecraft material hardening
C.L. Hann Industries, Inc., San Jose -- ground-handling support equipment
Danforth Screw & Bolt, Inc., San Carlos -- fasteners
Elma Electronics, Inc., Fremont -- electronic switches and components
Evans Precision Machining, Inc., Santa Clara -- precision-machined hardware and subassemblies
Hamilton Hallmark, San Jose -- electro-mechanical components
Kelly Moore Paints, Mountain View -- industrial coatings
Lusk Metals & Plastics, Hayward -- aluminum raw material
Mitsubishi International Corp., Palo Alto -- photo cells for solar arrays
Monterey Electronics, Castroville -- electronic connectors, capacitors and resistors
Motion Industries, Inc., Santa Clara -- miniature precision bearings and actuators
Powell Electronics, San Jose -- electronic components, switches and cables
Reliance Metal Center, Santa Clara -- metal raw materials
Robin Materials, Inc., Mountain View -- raw materials
Shop Tools, Inc., Palo Alto -- industrial hand and cutting tools
Sun Microsystems, Mountain View -- computer workstations
Sunnyvale Valve & Fitting, Sunnyvale -- plumbing line fittings and Quick-Connects
TPS Aviation Inc., Hayward -- high-strength aerospace fasteners
Trans-pak, Santa Clara -- packaging and crating
Valin Corporation, San Jose -- plumbing fittings for propellant lines
Vic & Tony's Millwork, Santa Clara -- raw materials
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Other companies and institutions from around the country that are a part of the Lunar Prospector program:
Lunar Prospector Science Investigations
The Gamma Ray Spectrometer, Neutron Spectrometer, and Alpha Particle Spectrometer were all built by the Los Alamos National Laboratory of Los Alamos, NM. Science investigations will be shared by Alan Binder, Lunar Research Institute, Scott Hubbard, NASA Ames Research Center, and Bill Feldman, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Magnetometer -- Mario Acuna, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD/Lon Hood, University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ
Electron Reflectometer -- Robert Lin, University of California, Berkeley, Space Science Laboratory
Doppler Gravity Experiment -- Alexander Konopliv, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Additional Lunar Prospector Team Members
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO -- Athena II launch vehicle
Spaceport Florida Authority, Cocoa Beach, FL -- launch services
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX -- common electronics for spectrometers, circuit boards for command and data handling unit, timer
Primex Aerospace, Redmond, WA -- six maneuvering thrusters
Spectrum Astro, Inc., Gilbert, AZ -- command and data handling unit
Eagle Picher Industries, Colorado Springs, CO -- NiCd batteries
PSI, Los Angeles -- propellant tanks
Thiokol, Elkton, MD -- solid rocket motor for trans-lunar injection
AEC-Able Engineering, Goletta, CA -- three instrument booms |
