LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) Observation Campaign: Strategies, Implementation, and Lessons Learned

Heldmann, J. L.; Colaprete, A.; Wooden, D. H.; Ackermann, Robert F.; Acton, David; Backus, P. R.; Bailey, Vanessa P.; Ball, Jesse; Barott, William C.; Blair, Samantha; Buie, M. W.; Callahan, Shawn; Chanover, N. J.; Choi, Young Jun; Conrad, Al; Coulson, Dolores; Crawford, K.B.; DeHart, Russell; Pater, Imke de; DiSanti, M. A.; Forster, J. R.; Furusho, Reiko; Fuse, Tetsuharu; Geballe, T. R.; Gibson, Josephine; Goldstein, David; Gregory, S. A.; Gutierrez, David J.; Hamilton, Ryan; Hamura, T.; Harker, David; Harp, G. R.; Haruyama, Junichi; Hastie, Morag Ann; Hayano, Yutaka; Hinz, Philip M.; Peng, Hong; James, Steven P.; Kadono, Toshihiko; Kawakita, Hideyo; Kelley, Michael S. P.; Kim, Daryl L.; Kurosawa, Kosuke; Lee, Duk Hang; Long, Michael A.; Lucey, P. G.; Marach, Keith; Matulonis, A.; McDermid, Richard M.; McMillan, R.; Miller, Charles; Moon, H. K.; Nakamura, Ryosuke; Noda, Hirotomo; Okamura, N.; Ong, Lawrence; Porter, Dallan; Puschell, J. J.; Rayner, John; Rembold, J. Jedadiah; Roth, Katherine C.; Rudy, R. J.; Russell, R. W.; Ryan, E. V.; Ryan, W. H.; Sekiguchi, T.; Sekine, Yasuhito; Skinner, Mark A.; Sôma, Mitsuru; Stephens, Andrew W.; Storrs, A. D.; Suggs, Robert M.; Sugita, Seiji; Sung, Eon‐Chang; Takatoh, Naruhisa; Tarter, Jill; Taylor, Scott M.; Terada, Hiroshi; Trujillo, C. A.; Vaitheeswaran, Vidhya; Vilas, F.; Walls, Brian; Watanabe, Jun Ihi; Welch, William J.; Woodward, C. E.; Yim, Hong Suh; Young, E. F.

doi:10.1007/s11214-011-9759-y

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This obscuration thus required material to ballistically rise above a height of 1.8 km in order to have been seen from Earth, thereby setting a strong limit on visible mass. Despite this limitation, a significant ground-based observing campaign was executed from the western United States and Hawaii to further characterize the LCROSS debris plume both spectroscopically and through imaging 9 . Aside from an enhancement of sodium in the lunar exosphere after the impact 10 , no other positive ground-based detections of the LCROSS debris plume were reported.…”

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confidence: 99%

Characterization of the LCROSS impact plume from a ground-based imaging detection

et al. 2013

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The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission was designed to search for evidence of water in a permanently shadowed region near the lunar south pole. An instrumented Shepherding Spacecraft followed a kinetic impactor and provided -from a nadir perspective -the only images of the debris plume. With independent observations of the visible debris plume from a more oblique view, the angles and velocities of the ejecta from this unique cratering experiment are better constrained. Here we report the first visible observations of the LCROSS ejecta plume from Earth, thereby ascertaining the morphology of the plume to contain a minimum of two separate components, placing limits on ejecta velocities at multiple angles, and permitting an independent estimate of the illuminated ejecta mass. Our mass estimate implies that the lunar volatile inventory in the Cabeus permanently shadowed region includes a water concentration of 6.3 ± 1.6% by mass.

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Characterization of the LCROSS impact plume from a ground-based imaging detection

et al. 2013

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“…The plume never reached an altitude where it was illuminated by the Sun and also above the foreground ridge of the Cabeus crater, which would have enabled Earth‐based observers to detect it. According to model calculations, this corresponds to an altitude of approximately 2.5 km [ Heldmann et al , 2011].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The spectral coverage afforded by the combination of instruments used on these three telescopes spanned 0.47–1.9 μ m. The spectral response of each camera and filter used for this study is shown in Figure 1, and the respective image scale parameters are listed in Table 1. The data acquired with each telescope are further described below, and additional details concerning the ground‐based LCROSS observing campaign, including the participation of the three telescopes described herein, are discussed by Heldmann et al [2011].…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Results from the NMSU-NASA Marshall Space Flight Center LCROSS observational campaign

Chanover¹,

Miller²,

Hamilton³

et al. 2011

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] We observed the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) lunar impact on 9 October 2009 using three telescope and instrument combinations in southern New Mexico: the Agile camera with a V filter on the Astrophysical Research Consortium 3.5 m telescope at Apache Point Observatory (APO), a StellaCam video camera with an R filter on the New Mexico State University (NMSU) 1 m telescope at APO, and a Goodrich near-IR (J and H band) video camera on the NMSU 0.6 m telescope at Tortugas Mountain Observatory. The three data sets were analyzed to search for evidence of the debris plume that rose above the Cabeus crater shortly after the LCROSS impact. Although we saw no evidence of the plume in any of our data sets, we constrained its surface brightness through analysis of our photometrically calibrated data. The minimum surface brightness that we could have detected in our Agile data was 9.69 magnitudes arc sec −2 , which is 177 times fainter than the brightest part of the foreground ridge of Cabeus. In our near-IR data, our minimum detectable surface brightness was 8.58 magnitudes arc sec, which is 370 times fainter than the brightest part of the foreground ridge in the J and H bands. The debris plume was detected by the LCROSS shepherding spacecraft and the Diviner radiometer on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Given the plume radiance observed by LCROSS, we cannot distinguish between a conical or cylindrical plume geometry because when seen from Earth, both are below our detection thresholds.

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“…Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) passed by the impact site between the times of the Centaur and SSC impacts [ Gladstone et al , 2010]. Ground based observatories watched the event [e.g., Killen et al , 2010; Hong et al , 2011; Miller et al , 2009; Heldmann et al , 2011]. Thus, data were taken from multiple perspectives to determine the composition and quantities of materials in the ejecta.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling of the vapor release from the LCROSS impact: Parametric dependencies

Crider¹

2011

J. Geophys. Res.

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The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission included an intentional impact into the Cabeus crater, a permanently shadowed region near the Moon's south pole. The impact produced a vapor plume of volatile species liberated from the impact site. Using a Monte Carlo model to simulate the vapor plume expansion, this paper investigates the expansion as a function of the physical properties of the gas. For a thermal release scenario, the cloud expands with the highest density at the center, with the density dropping within the cloud in time as the cloud expands. When a significant non‐thermal component to the velocity (a bulk speed) exists, the vapor expands as a hemispheric shell outward from the impact site. For heavier species, the high bulk velocity produces a hemisphere of higher density of gas that appears as a ring from above. For lighter gases like H2, the thermal velocity is on the same order as the bulk velocity. If the source is prolonged, the source rate is dominant in determining the local density, however. Gases produced by photodissociation have a prolonged source close to the impact site compared to promptly produced vapors.

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LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) Observation Campaign: Strategies, Implementation, and Lessons Learned

Cited by 21 publications

References 32 publications

Characterization of the LCROSS impact plume from a ground-based imaging detection

Characterization of the LCROSS impact plume from a ground-based imaging detection

Results from the NMSU-NASA Marshall Space Flight Center LCROSS observational campaign

Modeling of the vapor release from the LCROSS impact: Parametric dependencies

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