Transmission #30 From Tycho (Moon Map Missions)

"You’ll learn more about a road by traveling it than be consulting all the maps in the world.” - author unknown

Phase of the Moon Today: Waning Crescent 9%

The following post are descriptions of the various Moon Map Missions as described in this week's Powerpoint presentation.

The Clementine Mission
(Department of Defense and NASA) provided a more comprehensive and higher resolution view of our Moon than ever before between January and June 1994. Spectrometers measured reflected light in eleven wavelength bands from within ultraviolet to the near infrared (415 to 2800 nanometers). The spectral signatures allowed scientists to map the broad distribution of lunar rock types and soils, resolving the surface at a scale as small as 300 feet (100 meters). Clementine identified by compositional differences using different spectral signatures for the largest impact basin on the Moon — and the biggest hole in our solar system — South Pole Aitken Basin. They located regions near the lunar south pole that may be in permanent shadow, and therefore permanently cold, creating the ideal environment for water ice deposits to form. Most of the images that follow were collected by the Clementine spacecraft instruments.

Lunar Prospector
Followed Clementine, collecting spectral data to identify potential resources in the lunar crust, including minerals, water ice, and certain gases. It carried a Gamma Ray Spectrometer. Gamma radiation is not reflected radiation, it is emitted from the decay of radioactive elements or from elements bombarded by high energy solar radiation. Each element emits gamma rays at a characteristic energy or wavelength. The Gamma Ray Spectrometer mapped the abundances of ten elements on the lunar surface. Some of these, such as iron, oxygen, aluminum, silicon, and titanium, are important resources for future habitation. Data collected by other spectrometers aboard suggested the presence of hydrogen, possibly related to ice, in permanently shadowed polar regions.

The European Space Agency's Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology
(SMART-1) spacecraft included several spectrometers to characterize the chemical composition and geological history of the Moon. The mission concentrated on identifying compositional changes associated with impact craters and analyzing the lunar interior excavated by the impactors.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kaguya
Carries X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers that will provide information about the major elements in the lunar crust to help scientists understand how the crust formed.

Chang'e 1
Part of the China National Space Administration's lunar program, is flying an imaging spectrometer, as well as X-ray and gamma-ray spectrometers, to help constrain the compositions of the lunar surface.
signing off
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