NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Delivers Treasure Trove Of Data
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) team released Tuesday the final set of data from the mission's exploration phase along with the first measurements from its new life as a science satellite.With this fifth release of data, striking new images and maps have been added to the already comprehensive collection of raw lunar data and high-level products, including mosaic images, that LRO has made possible. The spacecraft's seven instruments delivered more than 192 terabytes of data with an unprecedented level of detail. It would take approximately 41,000 typical DVDs to hold the new LRO data set. "The release of such a comprehensive and rich collection of data, maps and images reinforces the tremendous success we have had with LRO in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and with lunar science," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Among the latest products is a global map with a resolution of 100
meters per pixel from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC).
To enhance the topography of the moon, this map was made from images
collected when the sun angle was low on the horizon. Armchair
astronauts can zoom in to full resolution with any of the
mosaics-quite a feat considering that each is 34,748 pixels by 34,748
pixels, or approximately 1.1 gigabytes.
"Because the moon is so close and because we have a dedicated ground
station, we are able to bring back as much data from LRO as from all
the other planetary missions combined," said LRO Project Scientist
Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
LRO's Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment is providing new data
relating to the moon's surface. These include maps of visual and
infrared brightness, temperature, rock abundance, nighttime soil
temperature and surface mineralogy. The data are in the form of more
than 1700 digital maps at a range of resolutions that can be overlaid
easily on other lunar data sets.
The Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project, which collects information to help
identify surface water-ice deposits, especially in
permanently-shadowed regions of the moon, also has new data. This
release includes new maps of far-ultraviolet (FUV) brightness, albedo
and water-ice data as well as instrument exposure, illumination and
other conditions.
As a complement to the high-resolution digital elevation maps,
representing 3.4 billion measurements already released by the Lunar
Orbiter Laser Altimeter team, the group is delivering new maps of
slope, roughness and illumination conditions. New maps from the Lunar
Exploration Neutron Detector, and the latest data from the Cosmic Ray
Telescope for the Effects of Radiation and the Miniature Radio
Frequency instruments, also are featured.
"All these global maps and other data are available at a very high
resolution -- that's what makes this release exciting," said
Goddard's John Keller, the LRO deputy project scientist. "With this
valuable collection, researchers worldwide are getting the best view
of the moon they have ever had."
The complete data set contains the raw information and high-level
products such as mosaic images and maps. The data set also includes
more than 300,000 calibrated data records released by LROC. All of
the final records from the exploration phase, which lasted from Sept.
15, 2009 through Sept. 15, 2010, are available through several of the
Planetary Data System nodes and the LROC website.
To access LRO data, visit:
http://pds.nasa.gov
LRO was built and is managed by Goddard. The exploration phase was
funded by NASA's Exploration Systems Missions Directorate. LRO
operates under NASA's Science Mission Directorate. For more
information about LRO, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/lro
Source: NASA
