Will NASA's moon missions survive the chill of a lunar eclipse?

An April 15 lunar eclipse poses a chilling challenge for NASA's currently operating moon probe missions. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, for example, will be plunged into darkness twice during the eclipse.

|
Dana Berry/NASA/AP
An illustration shows the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) orbiting the moon. The lunar eclipse predicted for Tuesday, April 15, 2014 may damage the spacecraft that has been circling the moon since fall 2013. The robotic orbiter was not designed to endure a lengthy, cold eclipse.

A few days from now, the Earth, moon and sun will perfectly align, shrouding the moon in the shadow of the Earth.

The total lunar eclipse, which is expected to last over three hours starts at 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) on April 15, will also plunge NASA's $504 million probe – the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) – into darkness.

The spacecraft's batteries need sunlight to recharge, so it will have to operate without charging for longer than usual. Will that be a problem?

In a statement, Noah Petro, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter deputy project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said that the LRO team would be watching the eclipse very closely.

"The spacecraft will be going straight from the moon's shadow to the Earth's shadow while it orbits during the eclipse," Petro said. "We're taking precautions to make sure everything is fine. We're turning off the instruments and will monitor the spacecraft every few hours when it's visible from Earth."

There have been instances when LRO had orbited the moon during an eclipse. In the past, the spacecraft has had to pass through the Earth's shadow for a short period of time. This time, though, LRO has to "to pass through the complete shadow twice" before the eclipse ends.

"For quite a while, people in LRO have been analyzing what's going to happen during this eclipse," Petro said. "We'll make sure the world knows LRO survived with no problems."

Launched in 2009 the robotic mission mostly orbits the moon at an altitude of about 31 miles and maps the moon's surface.

Meanwhile, NASA's $280 million Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft--launched in 2013 – is gradually lowering its orbit and is expected to land on the moon’s surface on or before April 21. But scientists are eagerly watching to see "how LADEE handles the prolonged exposure to the intense cold of this eclipse, and we've used flight data to predict that most of the spacecraft should be fine," said Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at Ames. "However, the eclipse will really put the spacecraft design through an extreme test, especially the propulsion system."

If it survives the eclipse, "we will have nearly a week of additional science at low altitudes before impact," said Dr. Elphic. "For a short mission like LADEE, even a few days count for a lot – this is a very exciting time in the mission."

After LADEE plunges onto the moon's surface NASA's LRO may be able to find the LADEE impact site in a few months.

Meanwhile, NASA is holding a little contest called "Take the Plunge Challenge" to generate public interest in the project. People are encouraged to submit their best guess (by April 11) on when LADEE will impact the lunar surface.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Will NASA's moon missions survive the chill of a lunar eclipse?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0409/Will-NASA-s-moon-missions-survive-the-chill-of-a-lunar-eclipse
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe