The LCROSS cratering experiment.
As its detached upper-stage launch vehicle collided with the surface, instruments on the trailing Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Shepherding Spacecraft monitored the impact and ejecta. The faint impact flash in visible wavelengths and thermal signature imaged in the mid-infrared together indicate a low-density surface layer. The evolving spectra reveal not only OH within sunlit ejecta but also other volatile species. As the Shepherding Spacecraft approached the surface, it imaged a 25- to-30-meter-diameter crater and evidence of a high-angle ballistic ejecta plume still in the process of returning to the surface--an evolution attributed to the nature of the impactor.
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA. peter_schultz@brown.edu
Peter H
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Schultz
Brendan
B
Hermalyn
Anthony
A
Colaprete
Kimberly
K
Ennico
Mark
M
Shirley
William S
WS
Marshall
D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D006878:Hydroxides; D016081:Moon
D006878:Hydroxides