LCROSS
Lunar Impact - October
09, 2009 NASA's Lunar
Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, created
twin impacts on the moon's surface early Friday October 9, 2009 in a search for
water ice. Scientists will analyze data from the spacecraft's
instruments to assess whether water ice is present.
The
satellite traveled 5.6 million miles during an historic 113-day
mission that ended in the Cabeus crater, a permanently shadowed
region near the moon's south pole. The spacecraft was launched
June 18 as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"The LCROSS science instruments worked exceedingly well and
returned a wealth of data that will greatly improve our
understanding of our closest celestial neighbor," said
Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project
scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field,
Calif. "The team is excited to dive into data."
