Federal award (DEFINITIVE CONTRACT, fiscal year 2021)
Recipient: ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2006-12-15 to 2024-10-31
Current total value of award: $86979126
Description: THE ROBOTIC LUNAR EXPLORATION LUNAR PRECURSOR ROBOTIC PROGRAM (RLEPLPRP) CONSISTS OF A SERIES OF ROBOTIC LUNAR EXPLORATION MISSIONS TO PREPARE FOR AND TO SUPPORT FUTURE HUMAN EXPLORATION ACTIVITIES. THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THE ROBOTIC PREPARATION IS TO REDUCE RISK, ENHANCE MISSION SUCCESS, AND REDUCE THE COST OF FUTURE HUMAN MISSIONS. THE LRO PAYLOAD USED TO ACCOMPLISH THE MISSION OBJECTIVES CONSISTS OF THE FOLLOWING SIX INSTRUMENTS: 1. LUNAR ORBITER LASER ALTIMETER (LOLA) MEASUREMENT INVESTIGATION SHALL DETERMINE THE GLOBAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LUNAR SURFACE AT HIGH RESOLUTION, MEASURE LANDING SITE SLOPES AND SEARCH FOR POLAR ICES IN SHADOWED REGIONS 2. LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER CAMERA (LROC) SHALL ACQUIRE TARGETED IMAGES OF THE LUNAR SURFACE CAPABLE OF RESOLVING SMALL-SCALE FEATURES THAT COULD BE LANDING SITE HAZARDS, AS WELL AS WIDE-ANGLE IMAGES AT MULTIPLE WAVELENGTHS OF THE LUNAR POLES TO DOCUMENT CHANGING ILLUMINATION CONDITIONS AND POTENTIAL RESOURCES 3. LUNAR EXPLORATION NEUTRON DETECTOR (LEND) SHALL MAP THE FLUX OF NEUTRONS FROM THE LUNAR SURFACE TO SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE OF WATER ICE AND PROVIDE MEASUREMENTS OF THE SPACE RADIATION ENVIRONMENT WHICH CAN BE USEFUL FOR FUTURE HUMAN EXPLORATION 4. DIVINER LUNAR RADIOMETER EXPERIMENT (DLRE) SHALL MAP THE TEMPERATURE OF THE ENTIRE LUNAR SURFACE AT 300 METER HORIZONTAL SCALES TO IDENTIFY COLD-TRAPS AND POTENTIAL ICE DEPOSITS 5. LYMAN-ALPHA MAPPING PROJECT (LAMP) SHALL OBSERVE THE ENTIRE LUNAR SURFACE IN THE FAR ULTRAVIOLET TO SEARCH FOR SURFACE ICES AND FROSTS IN THE POLAR REGIONS AND TO PROVIDE IMAGES OF PERMANENTLY SHADOWED REGIONS ILLUMINATED ONLY BY STARLIGHT 6. COSMIC RAY TELESCOPE FOR THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION (CRATER) SHALL INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF GALACTIC COSMIC RAYS ON TISSUE-EQUIVALENT PLASTICS AS A CONSTRAINT ON MODELS OF BIOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO BACKGROUND SPACE RADIATION. EACH INSTRUMENT WILL BE MANAGED BY A PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI), WHO WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR DELIVERING THE FLIGHT INSTRUMENT TO THE LRO PROJECT, AS WELL AS PRODUCING THE INSTRUMENT'S DATA PRODUCTS AND DELIVERING THEM TO THE PLANETARY DATA SYSTEM (PDS) IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR DATA PRODUCT SPECIFICATION DOCUMENT.