April 10, 2006                          RELEASE: 06-181

NASA CHOOSES NEW SPACECRAFT TO SEARCH FOR WATER ON MOON

NASA will send a second spacecraft to the moon with the launch of the 
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled for October 2008. The Lunar 
Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite will travel independent of 
the orbiter to search for water ice. 

The spacecraft, proposed by NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett 
Field, Calif., will fly as a secondary payload on the Evolved 
Expendable Launch Vehicle that will launch the orbiter from NASA's 
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

First, the craft will direct the upper stage used to leave Earth orbit 
to crash into a permanently-shadowed crater at the lunar south pole, 
creating a plume visible to Earth-based observatories. Next, the 
satellite will observe the plume and fly through it using several 
instruments to look for water. Then the satellite will itself become 
an impactor, creating a second plume visible to lunar-orbiting 
spacecraft and Earth-based observatories. 

"This type of payload is not new to NASA," said Associate 
Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Scott 
Horowitz, who made the selection. "We are taking advantage of the 
payload capability of the launch vehicle to conduct additional high 
risk/high payoff science to meet Vision for Space Exploration goals. 
It also signals to our workforce that innovative and competitive, 
low-cost approaches will be rewarded," he said. 

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the first of many robotic missions 
NASA will conduct between 2008 and 2016 to study, map, and learn 
about the lunar surface to prepare for the return of astronauts to 
the moon. These early missions will help determine lunar landing 
sites and whether resources, such as oxygen, hydrogen, and metals, 
are available for use in NASA's long-term lunar exploration 
objectives. 

NASA's requirements for the secondary payload were that it benefits 
the robotic lunar program, cost no more than $80 million and not 
exceed 2,205 pounds (1000 kilograms). 

On January 10, 2006, NASA issued a request for information to industry 
to allow businesses to provide secondary payload concepts to NASA. 
NASA encouraged its field centers to team with industry to develop 
proposals. Each NASA center reviewed ideas from industry, as well as 
secondary payload concepts developed internally. Several proposers, 
such as the winning spacecraft, took advantage of a new secondary 
payload adapter developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, 
Kirkland Air Force Base, N.M. 

NASA asked that the concepts advance the Vision for Space Exploration 
by advancing lunar science, characterizing the lunar environment, and 
identifying of sites for future human missions NASA was also looking 
for missions that would advance commercial opportunities and collect 
engineering data to support the Constellation program, which is 
developing NASA's new spaceship, the Crew Exploration Vehicle. 

For more about NASA's plans to explore the moon, Mars and beyond, 
visit: 

www.nasa.gov/exploration

_______________	
Michael Braukus/Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington 
(202) 358-1979/1753

John Bluck
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
(650) 604-5026