LADEE- Lunar Atmosphere and Dust
Environmental Explorer
It
was a feast for sky watchers on Friday, September, the 6th 2013 that
reside over eastern coast of US, as an another moon mission do started its journey. The launch was made from the NASA’s Wallops
Flight Facility. Generally, the launches are made from Cape-Canaveral but this
time the Wallops Flight Facility launched the mission. The NASA’s newest
robotic explorer was launched with the help of “Minotaur V’’ rocket. This is an
US air force owned rocket developed by orbital science corporate.
This
mission is a $ 280 million project which has an expected schedule of six
months. The lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer or LADEE has an
objective of exploring the composition of moon’s ever-so-delicate atmosphere
which has undergone gradual changes over past. The basic behind choosing
wallops for as launch site was because of minotaur v rocket which is comprised
of converted intercontinental ballistic missile motors which has a capacity to
launch this spacecraft successfully.
POINTS
TO PONDER-
i)
Mission name-The lunar atmosphere and
dust environment explorer.
ii)
Launch date- 6th September 2013
iii)
Launch site- Wallops Flight Facility
iv)
Weight of spacecraft- approx. 844 pounds
380 kg
v)
Instruments inclined- three science
instruments and a laser communication test equipment
vi)
Mission chief- John Grunsfeld former
astronaut worked on Hubble telescope
vii)
Launch rocket- minotaur v
viii)
Expected date of reaching lunar
surface-Oct. 6, 2013
ix)
Development of spacecraft is made by-
Ames Research Center, California(Director – S. Peter Worden
Vaibhav
Pramod Rajdeep
Author
(rajdeepvaibhav706@gmail.com)
