The European Space Agency’s SMART-1 team has released an image of the future impact site of NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). LCROSS will search for water ice on the Moon by making two impacts into a crater named Cabeus A at the lunar South Pole. The impacts are scheduled for 11:30 am UT on 9 October 2009.

Bjoern Grieger, the liaison scientist for SMART-1’s AMIE camera, and Project Scientist Bernard Foing have searched through SMART-1’s database for images of Cabeus A, taken four years ago at conditions where solar elevation and direction were similar to those of LCROSS impact. The SMART-1 image is at high resolution as the spacecraft was at its closest distance of 500 km from the South Pole. The SMART-1 image of the LCROSS target was discussed last week at lunar sessions of the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) in Potsdam, Germany.

Cabeus A is permanently shadowed, so ice lying inside the crater could be protected from the Sun’s harsh rays. LCROSS will send the upper stage Centaur rocket crashing into Cabeus A, and a shepherd spacecraft will fly into the plume of dust generated and measure its properties before making a second impact with the lunar surface. Astronomers will observe both impacts using ground and space-based telescopes. The SMART-1 spacecraft also concluded its mission with a controlled bouncing impact on 3 September 2006. The event was observed with ground-based telescopes, and the flash from the impact was detected at infrared wavelengths.

“We are pleased to contribute these ESA SMART-1 observations of the LCROSS target site in order to help in the planning and interpretation of impact observations. This is like gathering evidence for a Crash Scene Investigation, but before the action takes place,” said Bernard Foing.

“The coordination and exchange of information between lunar missions is an important step for future exploration of the Moon. Cooperation is vital if we are ever to see ‘villages’ of robotic landers and eventual lunar bases, as recommended by the International Lunar Exploration Working Group,” Foing added.

IMAGE

The image can be found at: http://www.europlanet-eu.org/demo/images/stories/ep/news/epsc2009/cabeus_a.jpg

Image caption: This image of LCROSS impact site Cabeus A was taken by the Advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 mission. The picture was taken from about 500 km, with small-field (about 50 km across) high resolution view (50 m/pixel). Image credit: B.Grieger, B.H. Foing & ESA/SMART-1/ AMIE team

FURTHER INFORMATION

SMART-1 public website: http://www.esa.int/smart-1

SMART-1 Scitech website: http://sci.es.aint/smart-1

LCROSS website: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html

Lunar south polar maps from SMART-1: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEM1S6M5NDF_0.html

SMART-1 impact: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEMWX03VRRE_0.html

International Lunar Exploration Working Group website: http://sci.esa.int/ilewg