LRO team asks NASA to extend mission another two years
MAY 10, 2016
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029810
Science News : Launched in 2009 for a one-year expedition to study the Moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has had its mission extended repeatedly over the last seven years. Mission researchers have completed the primary goals of scouting potential future landing sites for astronauts, looking for water, and probing radiation hazards. LRO is now the longest-lived lunar orbiter, and the team hopes to add at least two more years. Over its extended mission LRO has watched three other spacecraft crash into the Moon’s surface, mapped numerous craters, spotted water ice covered by the Moon’s regolith, and found evidence of past volcanic activity.
© 2016. American Institute of Physics