From: oneil@aio.jsc.nasa.gov (Graham O'Neil)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Lunar Prospector White Paper
Date: 22 Dec 1992 10:51:53 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space,sci.geo.geology
Subject: Lunar Prospector White Paper
Summary: Program and science goals, experiments, mission profile
Followup-To: sci.space
Distribution: world
Keywords: Lunar Resource Mapping, Experiments, Instruments, Mission Operations

[In response to several E-Mail requests, I am posting some background
on what Lunar Explorations Inc. is attempting on the Lunar Prospector
Mission with background on instruments, goals for data acquisition,
and members of the research teams].

                  LUNAR PROSPECTOR WHITE PAPER

1  Introduction

The Lunar Prospector Project is being conducted by Lunar Exploration,
Inc. (LEI) of Houston, Texas.  There are four major goals of the
Project:

	1) To provide NASA with lunar orbital, global mapping data
needed for the planning and execution of the lunar phase of the Space
Exploration Initiative (SEI).

	2) To demonstrate the utility of small, simple Spacecraft
which carry out a limited number of experiments at low cost and in a
short time.

	3) To create public and congressional support for the SEI by
having a highly visible lunar mission, the first lunar mission since
the end of Apollo.

	4) To promote international cooperation for space exploration
by having the Russians provide the launch for the mission and by
involving other nations in the Project.

LEI is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation relying on volunteer
support and donations of equipment and services to keep the costs of
Lunar Prospector low.  LEI was formed in 1989 to provide the
scientific and engineering expertise required for the Lunar Prospector
Project and consists of a volunteer group of experienced Houston area
aerospace engineers and the science teams.  The scientists conducting
the experiments have decades of experience on numerous NASA lunar and
planetary missions.

The Lunar Prospector science payload was chosen from the list of
candidate experiments proposed for lunar mapping missions.  Lunar
Prospector carries six experiments, chosen because of their high
science value and because they could be flown on a simple, spin
stabilized Spacecraft.  These experiments are:

Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, Principle Investigator - Dr. Brad Roscoe of
LEI.  The Gamma-Ray Spectrometer is a more advanced system than was
flown on the Apollo missions and provides global maps of the surface
composition of the Moon.

Neutron Spectrometer, Principle Investigator - Dr. Bill Feldman of the
Los Alamos National Laboratory.  The Neutron Spectrometer determines
if there are deposits of water ice in the lunar polar regions.  The
spectrometer has a water ice detectability limit of better than 0.01%.
Because of this sensitivity, the mission will provide a timely answer
to the critical water ice question which is so important to the
planning of the SEI.  In addition, the experiment is so sensitive that
it detects the solar wind hydrogen implanted in the regolith.  By
mapping the regolith hydrogen abundances, the experiment indirectly
maps the lunar 3He distribution and gains information required for the
future terrestrial utilization of this extremely important lunar
resource.

Alpha Particle Spectrometer, Principle Investigator - Dr. Alan Binder
of LEI. The Alpha Particle Spectrometer is an advanced version of the
experiment flown on Apollo 15 and 16.  It determines the locations and
frequency of radon gas release events, events which may also release
large quantities of N, CO, and/or CO2.  If this is the case, then
potential sources of these important life support gases will have been
found.

Magnetometer, Principle Investigator - Dr. Lon Hood of the University
of Arizona and

Electron Reflectometer, Principle Investigator - Dr. Bob Lin of the
University of California at Berkeley. These two experiments, in
tandem, map the lunar magnetic fields.  The equipment for these two
experiments are identical to the Mars Observer magnetic experiments
and produces the same quality of data as that NASA mission.

Doppler Gravity Experiment, Principle Investigator - Bill Sjogren of
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  The experiment provides the first
complete gravity map of the Moon.  Because no earlier mission was in a
low polar orbit, NASA does not have an adequate lunar gravity model
for the planning the follow-on unmanned and manned lunar missions.
Thus Lunar Prospector will again provide timely, critical data for
planning the SEI.

The Lunar Prospector Spacecraft is a small, simple, reliable, spin
stabilized Spacecraft with a fully fuelled mass of only 299 kg.  It is
a 1.42 m diameter, 1.42 m tall drum with solar cells mounted on its
outer surface.  Its basic design is that of a small comsat bus so well
developed by commercial companies.  The scientific instruments are
mounted on three booms; isolating them from the bus and simplifying
the Spacecraft-instrument interfaces.  The design of the Spacecraft
was completed in June of 1990 by OMNI System, Inc., the Project's
Spacecraft Contractor.

NPO Energia of Russia has offered to launch Lunar Prospector for a
nominal fee.  The participation of Russia in the Project will help
pave the way for future cooperation with NASA in the SEI.

The mission will begin with the launch provided by NPO Energia. The
flight to the Moon takes five days, during which two midcourse
maneuvers occur, the boom are deployed and the science instruments
collect calibration data both in the undeployed and deployed
conditions.  Once the Spacecraft has reached the Moon, it performs
three separate Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) burns.  The first LOI burn
puts the Spacecraft into a 24 hour, elliptical orbit.  Twenty-four
hours later, the second LOI burn puts the Spacecraft into a 4 hour
elliptical orbit.  Finally, 24 hours later, the third LOI burn puts
the Spacecraft into its 118 minute, 100 km altitude, polar mapping
orbit.  At that point, the Spacecraft begins its nominal one year
mapping mission.  During this phase, periodic orbital maintenance
maneuvers are made to keep the Spacecraft in its proper orbit.  If the
fuel usage is less than the worst case planning estimates, the mapping
mission will be extended beyond this nominal one year and will end
when the fuel necessary for orbital maintenance is depleted.  Shortly
thereafter, the Spacecraft will impact the Moon, ending the mission.

Mission operations are carried out by the volunteer engineers of LEI
at the Mission Control Center in Clear Lake, Texas.  Tracking and data
reception are carried out by a world-wide tracking network of
antennas.

The total cost of Lunar Prospector is 16 million
dollars plus launch costs.  The costs are so low because:

	1) The small, simple Spacecraft, the science instruments and
the ground support equipment are constructed using existing technology
and off-the-shelf hardware.  There are no development costs associated
with the Project.

	2) The majority of the the Project is being done by volunteers.

	3) The LEI administrative costs are very low because this
institution is very small and has very low overhead.

The Lunar Prospector Project has gained support from various
government and NASA officials, the Stafford Committee and the National
Space Council, all of which see this effort as helping to gain support
for the SEI.  Lunar Prospector is viewed by these individuals and
committees as being the type of innovative, space exploration
alternative called for by both the Augustine Committee and the
Stafford Committee.

In order to continue the work necessary to fly the mission, we need
the financial support of individuals and organizations.  If you
support the goals and work of Lunar Exploration, you can show that
support by:

INDIVIDUAL DONATIONS:

Donation checks (at least $10, please) should be sent to the following
address.  Please do not send any correspondence to this address, since
the bank charges for forwarding it.

LEI
C/O Bank One Texas
PO Box 297024
Houston, TX 77297

LEI is a tax-exempt, IRS approved, type 501(c) 3 organization.  Unless
you are in a special category, your donation is fully tax-exempt.

CORPORATE AND ORGANIZATION REFERRALS:

LEI is interested in identifying organizations with a history of
supporting science an exploration with grants and donations.  If you
know of such organizations with an interest in enabling space
exploration, we would appreciate a referral to them.  Referrals to
possible major donors are best sent to oneil@neosoft.com or phoned to
713-480-1216.

OTHER:

If you must contact us, please use Internet mail to oneil@neosoft.com
or mail to 

			LEI
			PO Box 590722
			Houston, TX 77259.

Please send only researched correspondence to LEI.  We regret our
system is not responsive to mail deluge, so only referrals will be
treated with priority.  We'll make everything we can, including
current news and an FAQ writeup when it's ready, available for FTP at
ames.arc.nasa.gov, in directory pub/lei.

Appreciatively,

graham
--
Graham O'Neil    oneil@aio.jsc.nasa.gov      GONEIL@nasamail  
Lockheed  2400 NASA RD 1 Houston, TX 77058  (713)333-7197
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