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Lunar Prospector blasts off for the moon
In this story:
Lunar Prospector lifts off January 6, 1998
- Slips through 4-minute 'window'
- Searching for water
- Orbiting begins Sunday
- Related stories and sites
Web posted at: 9:32 p.m. EST (0232 GMT)CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) - The unmanned Lunar Prospector blasted off into space Tuesday night, beginning NASA's first moon mission since men last set foot on the lunar surface 25 years ago.
A Lockheed Martin Corp. Athena 2 rocket carrying the probe successfully negotiated a short, four-minute "launch window," which was all that the Earth-moon alignment allowed.
The launch was to have taken place Monday night, but a malfunctioning U.S. Air Force radar dish forced a day's delay while technicians spent five hours fixing the problem.
The radar is one of three on the Florida coast needed to track the rocket for safety reasons.
The launch was rescheduled for Tuesday. The brief launch window offered the most fuel-efficient trajectory to the moon.
NASA spokesman George Diller said before the launch that the radar problem had been fixed.
"We are in fine shape," he said. "The radar has been tested successfully and we are not working any technical problems."
Had NASA been unable to launch the Lunar Prospector Tuesday, it would have had to wait until February 3 for the Earth and the moon to be in favorable positions again for another try.
Searching for water
The 4-foot, 650-pound Prospector is to orbit 63 miles above the lunar surface while it searches for ice, gas and minerals.
NASA illustration of Prospector scanning the moon's surface It is expected to focus in particular on the moon's south pole, where scientists believe frozen water may have collected from the impact of icy comets. The south pole is the only part of the moon that remains in total darkness.
Some scientists believe there could be as much as 1 billion tons of water ice on the moon, a theory bolstered by the findings of the Department of Defense's Clementine spacecraft in 1994.
Radar readings taken by the craft appeared to confirm the presence of ice, but many scientists are skeptical. Some believe that what the probe detected was not ice at all, but simply rough patches on the steeps sides of a crater.
At $65 million, the Lunar Prospector mission is a bargain-basement special compared to NASA's multi-billion-dollar Apollo project that put 12 men on the moon between 1969 and 1972.
Orbiting begins Sunday
It is equipped with five instruments, including an electronic divining rod that will enable it to detect the hydrogen atoms in water. If there is water on the moon, future pioneers could break it down and separate it into hydrogen and oxygen and make their own rocket fuel.
The Prospector is due to assume its orbit about the moon's poles Sunday after a 4 1/2-day flight, and could learn within a month whether there is ice on the surface.
It will also measure the composition of the surface, detect magnetic fields and map gravitational anomalies in the moon's outer crust. When it runs out of fuel, which should be in about a year, the craft will crash on the moon's surface.
Reuters contributed to this report.
CNN Community:
Related stories:
- Moon launch delayed 24 hours - January 5, 1998
- Lunar Prospector poised for Monday launch - January 4, 1998
- NASA readies for moon mission - December 5, 1997
Related sites:
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CNN Computer Connection | Future Watch | Science & Technology Week
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