Until we send humans or robots to the lunar surface, this will have to do. Hopefully we will have students that will use the data to devise new missions.
- LRK -
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NASA'S Lunar Spacecraft Completes Exploration Mission Phase
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/sep/HQ_10-223_LRO_Success.html
Sep. 15, 2010
Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1979
michael.j.braukus@nasa.gov
Nancy Neal Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-0039
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 10-223
NASA'S LUNAR SPACECRAFT COMPLETES EXPLORATION MISSION PHASE
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, will complete the exploration phase of its mission on Sept. 16, after a number of successes that transformed our understanding of Earth's nearest neighbor.
LRO completed a one-year exploration mission in a polar orbit approximately 31 miles above the moon's surface. It produced a comprehensive map of the lunar surface in unprecedented detail; searched for resources and safe landing sites for potential future missions to the moon; and measured lunar temperatures and radiation levels.
The mission is turning its attention from exploration objectives to scientific research, as program management moves from NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington.
"LRO has been an outstanding success. The spacecraft has performed brilliantly," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. "LRO's science and engineering teams achieved all of the mission's objectives, and the incredible data LRO gathered will provide discoveries about the moon for years to come."
The LRO team will continue to send data gathered during the last year to the Planetary Data System, which archives and distributes scientific information from NASA planetary missions, astronomical observations and laboratory measurements.
By the time LRO achieves full mission success in March, and its data is processed and released to the scientific community, it will have sent more information to the Planetary Data System than all other previous planetary missions combined. During its new phase of discovery, LRO will continue to map the moon for two to four more years.
"The official start of LRO's science phase should write a new and intriguing chapter in lunar research," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. "This mission is one more asset added to NASA's vast science portfolio."
The spacecraft launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying a suite of seven instruments on June 18, 2009. LRO formally began its detailed survey of the moon in September 2009.
Results from the mission include: new observations of the Apollo landing sites; indications that permanently shadowed and nearby regions may harbor water and hydrogen; observations that large areas in the permanently shadowed regions are colder than Pluto; detailed information about lunar terrain; and the first evidence of a globally distributed population of thrust faults that indicates the moon has recently contracted and may still be shrinking.
LRO also took high resolution pictures of the Lunokhod 1 rover that had been lost for almost 40 years. The rover, which carries a retroreflector, was located to within approximately 150 feet. The accurate position data enabled researchers on Earth to bounce laser signals off the retroreflector for the first time ever. The retroreflector is providing important new information about the position and motion of the moon.
LRO also supported the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite impact, a companion mission sent to determine if the moon's poles harbor water ice, by helping to select a promising impact site. LRO observed both the expanding plume that arose after the impact and the evolving temperature at the site.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built and manages LRO for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. The Institute for Space Research in Moscow provides the neutron detector aboard the spacecraft. For more information about LRO, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/lro
-end-
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It is easy to forget how close the Moon is to Earth.
It is easy to forget how close the Moon is to Earth.
It is easy to forget how close the Moon is to Earth.
Don't you think we should go there and do this and that?
It is easy to forget how close the Moon is to Earth.
- LRK -
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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc-20100916_earth.html
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/482574main_20100916_1b.jpg
As LRO orbits the Moon every two hours sending down a stream of science data, it is easy to forget how close the Moon is to the Earth. The average distance between the two heavenly bodies is just 384,399 km (238,854 miles). Check your airline frequent flyer totals, perhaps you have already flown the distance to the Moon and back on a single airline! Contrast the current image with the NAC view taken last June, which revealed much of central Asia.
The Moon is a spectacular sight in the nighttime sky. Now imagine the Earth from the Moon, four times larger, a delicate blue, and it does not rise nor set. To astronauts, the Earth is a constant companion, at least on the nearside. Of course, on the farside you can never see the Earth.
snip
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Let us send something intelligent to the Moon.
If not me, then something that can see for me.
Something that will help others see what some politicians fail to see.
- LRK -
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http://tinyurl.com/2ax2hdz
As seen at http://www.kurzweilai.net/
New supercomputer on a chip ‘sees’ well enough to drive a car someday September 16, 2010 by Amara D. Angelica
Eugenio Culurciello of Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science has developed a supercomputer based on the ventral pathway of the mammalian visual system. Dubbed NeuFlow, the system mimicks the visual system’s neural network to quickly interpret the world around it. The system uses complex vision algorithms developed by Yann LeCun at New York University to run large neural networks for synthetic vision applications. One idea — the one Culurciello and LeCun are focusing on — is a system that would allow cars to drive themselves. In order to be able to recognize the various objects encountered on the road—such as other cars, people, stoplights, sidewalks, and the road itself—NeuFlow processes tens of megapixel images in real time.
snip
http://www.kurzweilai.net/
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Maybe someone would like to print me up a 3D igloo made from regolith cement.
- LRK -
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/technology/14print.html?pagewanted=1&tntemail0=y&_r=4&emc=tnt
3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution
By ASHLEE VANCE
Published: September 13, 2010
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/technology/14print.html?_r=3&pagewanted=2&tntemail0=y&emc=tnt
snip
But Contour Crafting, based in Los Angeles, has pushed 3-D printing technology to its limits.
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http://www.contourcrafting.org/
Html version http://craft.usc.edu/CC/modem.html
Shockwave http://craft.usc.edu/CC/Welcome_files/contourcrafting.html
*Requires broadband connection and the Shockwave media player - which it would seem I don't have installed. LRK
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Based on research done by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California, Contour Crafting has created a giant 3-D printing device for building houses. The start-up company is seeking money to commercialize a machine capable of building an entire house in one go using a machine that fits on the back of a tractor-trailer.
The 3-D printing wave has caught the attention of some of the world’s biggest technology companies. Hewlett-Packard, the largest paper-printer maker, has started reselling 3-D printing machines made by Stratasys. And Google uses the CADspan software from LGM to help people using its SketchUp design software turn their creations into 3-D printable objects.
snip
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Just think how hard it would be to work in the vacuum of the Moon, and just think how much fun it would be to figure out how to do so. :-)
Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK
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