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LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite)

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A NASA impact experiment launched on 18 June 2009 aboard an Atlas V alongside the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. On 9 October 2009 at about 11:31 UTC its spent Centaur upper stage was steered into the permanently shadowed floor of Cabeus crater at roughly 2.5 km/s. The shepherding spacecraft flew through the resulting ejecta plume for about four minutes, returning near-infrared and ultraviolet spectra before impacting itself. Analysis reported water in the ejecta at 5.6 ± 2.9 per cent by mass, alongside hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, methanol and traces of mercury — the first direct measurement of water inside a lunar cold trap, and the single result that most changed the case for polar exploration.

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  1. Story
  2. A NASA impact experiment launched on 18 June 2009 aboard an Atlas V alongside the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. On 9 October 2009 at about 11:31 UTC its spent Centaur upper stage was steered into the permanently shadowed floor of Cabeus crater at roughly 2.5 km/s. The shepherding spacecraft flew through the resulting ejecta plume for about four minutes, returning near-infrared and ultraviolet spectra before impacting itself. Analysis reported water in the ejecta at 5.6 ± 2.9 per cent by mass, alongside hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane, methanol and traces of mercury — the first direct measurement of water inside a lunar cold trap, and the single result that most changed the case for polar exploration.
  3. Knowledge
  4. Cabeus Crater
  5. LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite)
  6. Connections
  7. Lunar Water Ice
  8. Cabeus Crater
  9. LCROSS Centaur impacts the permanently shadowed floor of Cabeus crater
  10. LCROSS results published: water measured in the Cabeus ejecta plume
  11. Lunar South Pole Region
  12. LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite)
  13. LCROSS Centaur impacts the permanently shadowed floor of Cabeus crater
  14. LCROSS results published: water measured in the Cabeus ejecta plume
  15. Evidence
  16. Reports water in the LCROSS Cabeus crater ejecta plume at 5.6 ± 2.9 per cent by mass, alongside other volatiles — the first direct measurement of water in a lunar permanently shadowed cold trap.
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