News | 2011 News Archive

AASC supports NASA LRO spacecraft with Hi Gain Antenna

06/22/2011

 

NASA declared the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) a complete success! The LRO changed our view of the entire moon and brought it into sharper focus with unprecedented detail.

AASC designed the High Gain Antenna, performed structural and thermal analysis, fabricated the structure, integrated and aligned the RF feed and polarizer, and performed environmental testing including thermal cycling, sine and random vibration and acoustics. The High Gain Antenna utilizes the same basic sub set of materials and construction techniques which have also been used on more than 100 other reflectors fabricated by AASC. The antenna met all performance requirements.

The LRO Spacecraft launched on an Atlas V 401 rocket.  After about a four day trip, the LRO entered into an elliptical orbit, called the commissioning orbit.  Then it moved into its final orbit, a circular polar orbit approximately 50 km (31 miles) above the moon’s surface. The LRO spent at least one year in low polar orbit collecting detailed information about the moon and its environment.

The objectives of the LRO mission were to aid NASA in identifying landing sites, locate potential resources, describe the current radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology. The LRO spacecraft was placed in low polar orbit (50 km) for a 1-year mission under NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. LRO returned global data to develop useful tools, such as day-night temperature maps, a global geodetic grid, high-resolution color imaging and the moon’s UV albedo. Particular emphasis was focused on the polar regions where continuous access to solar illumination was possible and the prospect of water ice in the permanently shadowed polar craters beckons.

Although the objectives of LRO were exploratory in nature, the payload included instruments with considerable heritage from previous planetary science missions, enabling transition after one year, to a science phase under NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. With a comprehensive dataset focused on supporting the extension of human presence in the solar system, LRO helped identify sites close to potential resources with high scientific value, favorable terrain and the environment necessary for future robotic and human lunar missions. All LRO data and the products produced from those data was deposited in NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS), a publicly accessible repository of planetary science information. The raw and processed datasets will help the world develop a deeper understanding of the lunar environment, paving the way for a safe human return to the moon and for future human exploration of our Solar System.