The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

248 Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector
The third mission in NASA’s Discovery Program and
the first to be competitively selected. Five days after its
1998 launch, Lunar Prospector entered a polar orbit
aroundtheMoon,101kmhigh,atthestartofayear-long
primary mission. The spacecraft was equipped with five
instruments, mounted on three 2.5-m long booms,
including aneutron spectrometer—the first device of this
type to be carried onboard an interplanetary probe. The
spectrometer was designed to verify the existence of
water ice at the lunar poles as first suggested by measurements
made by Clementine in 1994. On March 5, 1998,
it was announced that Lunar Prospector had found further
evidence to backup Clementine’s discovery. Lunar
Prospector also provided a new map that shows the
chemical composition and the magnetic and gravity
fieldsoftheMooninunprecedenteddetail.Thenominal
one-year mission was followed by atwo-year extended
missionduringwhichtheorbitwasloweredtoanaltitude
of 50 km and then 10 km to obtain higher resolution
measurements. On July 31, 1999, Lunar Prospector
struck the Moon near the south pole in acontrolled
crash to look for further evidence of water ice, though
none was found.
Launch
Date: January 6, 1998
Vehicle: Athena II
Site: Cape Canaveral
Size: 1.4 × 1.2 m
Mass: 295 kg (fully fueled); 126 kg (dry)
Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV)
See Apollo.
Lunar-A
A Japanese lunar probe, scheduled for launch in 2003 by
ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science). It
will be the first mission to study the Moon’s internal state
using penetrators. After entering lunar orbit, the spacecraft
will deploy three 13-kg spear-shaped cases, 90 cm
long and 13 cm in diameter. These will be individually
released over a period of a month and impact the Moon
at 250 to 300 m/s, burrowing 1 to 3 m into the surface.
One penetrator will be targeted at the equatorial area of
the nearside (in the region of the Apollo 12 and 14 landing
sites), one at the equatorial farside, and one near the
border between the nearside and the farside. The penetrators
are equipped with seismometers and devices to
measure heat flow, and they will transmit their data to the
orbiter as it passes over each penetrator every 15 days.
After deploying the penetrators, the orbiter will move to
a 200–300 km near-circular orbit and use its monochromatic
camera to image features near the terminator with
a resolution of up to 30 m.
lunar-orbit rendezvous (LOR)
A spacecraft maneuver involving docking and coupling,
fueling, or transfer in a lunar parking orbit. The concept
of lunar-orbit rendezvous was first discussed by the Russian
rocket theoretician Yuri Kondratyuk in 1916 and later
by the British scientist H. E. Ross. 284 As a means of reaching
the Moon’s surface, it has the advantage that the
lunar landing vehicle can be designed specifically for this
task and be of low mass, since all the equipment and supplies
for the return to Earth can be left in lunar orbit.
Against this, however, must be set the difficulty and danger
of having to maneuver and dock two vehicles in lunar
orbit. Despite this drawback, LOR was the technique
chosen to convey astronauts to and from the Moon in
the Apollo program.
Lundin, Bruce T. (1919–)
An American aerospace propulsion engineer. Lundin
earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University
of California in 1942 and joined the Lewis Laboratory
(see Glenn Research Center) in 1943. There he
investigated heat transfer and methods to improve the
performance of World War II aircraft engines. In 1946, he
became chief of the jet propulsion research section,
which conducted some of America’s early research on
turbojet engines. He became assistant director of Lewis in
1958 and directed much of the center’s efforts in space
propulsion and power generation. Lundin then advanced
through the positions of associate director for development
at Lewis (1961), managing the development and
operation of the Centaur and Agena launch vehicles,
and of deputy associate administrator for advanced
research and technology at NASA headquarters (1968),
before becoming acting associate administrator for
advanced research and technology there (1969). Later
that year, he was appointed director of the Lewis
Research Center, a position he held until his retirement
in 1977.
Lunik
The name by which the first three Luna spacecraft were
known in the West.
Lunney, Glynn S. (1936–)
A longtime NASA official who trained as an aeronautical
engineer and came to the Lewis Laboratory (see Glenn
Research Center) around the time of NASA’s creation in
1958 to join the Space Task Group developing Project