http://www.nasa.gov/mission_
LCROSS Lunar Impact 7:31 a.m. EDT/4:31 a.m. PDT Friday Oct. 9
A live NASA TV Broadcast is planned for the LCROSS impacts starting at
6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT, Oct. 9, on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.
The 1.5 hour broadcast includes:
Live footage from spacecraft camera
Real-time telemetry based animation
Views of LCROSS Mission and Science Operations
Broadcast commentary with expert guests
Prepared video segments
Views of the public impact viewing event at NASA Ames
Possible live footage from the University of Hawaii, 88-inch telescope
on Mauna Kea.
The live LCROSS Post-Impact News Conference will be 10 a.m. EDT/7 a.m.
PDT on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.
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Geoff asked if the fuel used in LCROSS would contaminate the expected readings when the upper stage of the Atlas crashes into the Moon.
The Centaur burns liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) so sounds like a good question.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I didn't know the answer so went looking and I must confess had not read the LCROSS blog site.
Here is their blog with a history time line and looks like they are trying to make sure their is no water on the booster stage.
- LRK -
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http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/
snip
DOY 267 (September 24): Cold Side Bakeout #3 and a Test of the –Z MGA
Despite previous efforts to rid the Centaur outer skin of water on Cold Side Bakeout #1 and #2, our Navigation team continued to observe the accelerating effects of escaping water at the end of the second of those events. With the amounts of water remaining, the Science Team was no longer concerned that this water could interfere with water measurements at Impact – there was just too little left. However, Navigation was still concerned that remaining water might push our Centaur off course in the hours before Impact, after Separation when we no longer had any control over its orbit.
Recall that we had planned to execute Cold Side Bakeout #3 on DOY 234 (August 22), but our plans were thwarted by the discovery of the anomaly. Cold Side Bakeout #3 was unfinished business that had to be completed. In an unrelated thread, we also wanted to test the antenna we’d be using for Impact. LCROSS has two Medium Gain Antennas (MGA’s), one on the +Z axis, the other on the –Z axis, used to downlink high-speed science data to Earth. We had used the +Z MGA during Lunar Swingby, but had never tested the –Z MGA in flight. We didn’t want to discovera problem with this antenna in the hours before impact, so we devised a test that would expose any issues immediately, and that would couple very nicely with Cold Side Bakeout #3.
The combined Cold Side Bakeout #3 and –Z MGA Test took advantage of the fact that LCROSS was passing right through the ecliptic plane, the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. The LCROSS +X axis was perpendicular to the ecliptic plane at the time, and so by rotating about the +X (roll) axis, we could simultaneously face the “cold side” of the Centaur towards the sun, and the –Z MGA towards the Earth (required to test communications via this antenna). It was a
perfectly-timed opportunity.
On DOY 267 (September 24), we performed the maneuver. Unlike previous versions of Cold Side Bakeout, we stopped the spacecraft twice, once at 135 degrees rotation, and again at 225 degrees. The first position pointed the –Z MGA (which is canted by 45 degrees) straight at the
Earth, and warmed one side of the cold skin of the Centaur. After 20 minutes, LCROSS rotated another 90 degrees, moving the MGA off the Earth, and moving another part of the cold face of the Centaur into full sunlight. We characterized one “slice” of the –Z MGA antenna gain pattern, confirmed that it was operational and mounted according to specification, and removed more water from our impactor.
One of the risks of Cold Side Bakeouts is that we might induce athermal instability in our thrusters, as we had in Cold Side Bakeout #1, prompting our improvised fault management to fire the thrusters to keep them warm (see the post entitled “Our First Orbit Around the
Earth” for details). Happily, our thrusters remained thermally stable, and we avoided any additional propellant cost.
snip
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http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/
Welcome Posted on May 09, 2009 02:53:46 PM | Paul.D Tompkins
Welcome everyone to the first installment of the LCROSS Flight Blog! LCROSS stands for Lunar Crater and Observation and Sensing Satellite. It is one of two spacecraft launching to the moon in June of 2009, as part of a coordinated effort to explore the moon in unprecedented detail, in preparation for human missions in the not-so-distant future. If you’re not familiar with the mission concept, I’d suggest you start with our project website:
http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov
or
http://www.nasa.gov/lcross
What you may not know is that LCROSS does not fly all by itself. During our mission, a team, called the Mission Operations Team (or Flight Team for short), will remotely operate the spacecraft from NASA Ames Research Center in the Bay Area in California, as well as from
other operations facilities around the country and around the world.
My name is Paul Tompkins, and I’m the Flight Team Leader and one of the Flight Directors for the LCROSS mission. In this blog, I’ll do my best to describe what it’s like to be a part of this team. I’ll be posting as often as possible as the LCROSS launch date approaches, and during the mission to provide play-by-play updates of the mission. Above all, I hope I can convey the excitement all of us on the teamare all feeling, and to get you excited about the moon!
snip
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First time I had seen the blog. Looks like an interesting read.
Nothing like the thrill of a good anomaly. :-)
- LRK -
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http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/
Once More Around the Earth: September 4 - October 5 Posted on Oct 05, 2009 03:14:59 PM | Paul.D Tompkins The anomaly robbed the LCROSS Flight Team of precious time to prepare
for Impact. But with a healthy spacecraft, and enough propellant to do the job, our team was all too happy to prepare for the future. Ahead of us were five more Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCM 6 – 10) to precisely refine our crater targeting, then Separation, Centaur
Observation, Braking Burn, and finally, Impact. In the midst of our TCM series, the Science Team continued refining their selection our target – the specific crater, and the point within the crater - based on the latest data from other missions. As a final confirmation of the payload instruments, the Science Team also wanted to look at Earth one last time before Impact. On top of all that, we needed topractice those final two critical days as much as we could.
DOY 247-251 (September 4 – 8): Housekeeping
Out of Emergency Status, we resumed operations gradually, monitoring spacecraft health and performing typical housekeeping duties. Of special note, as a result of the anomaly and our very small propellant margin, we decided to substitute Earth Look Cal 2, originally scheduled for DOY 250 (September 7), with a new, more propellant-efficient calibration maneuver that we termed “Earth Gaze”, on DOY 261 (September 18; see below).
snip
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Brings back memories I have of the Lunar Prospector Mission.
Marcie Smith wrote the lunar-update log which got posted to the lunar-update list, and here we are, just a few years later. :-)
- LRK -
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http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/
Automatic Email sender: During the mission the lunar-update list provided weekly status reports. Now that the mission has ended the list is no longer being maintained.
The complete Status Report archive in an Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF file.
LPStatus.pdf (255 kb PDF file)
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/
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Thanks for looking up with me.
Larry Kellogg
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
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