Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE)

Description

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is currently under study for launch in 2011 on a Minotaur-V. LADEE is designed to characterize the tenuous lunar atmosphere and dust environment from orbit. The scienctific objectives of the mission are: 1) Determine the global density, composition, and time variability of the fragile lunar atmosphere before it is perturbed by further human activity; 2) Determine if the Apollo astronaut sightings of diffuse emission at 10s of km above the surface were Na glow or dust and; 3) Document the dust impactor environment (size-frequency) to help guide design engineering for the outpost and also future robotic missions.

The nominal science orbit will last 100 days. The orbiter will tentatively carry a neutral mass spectrometer and dust detector instrument and possibly another experiment, science payload mass must be less than 20 kg with normal power of 60 W and a 100 W maximum. Communications will be via S-band with a 10 Kbps science data rate. Total mass of the orbiter will be approximately 130 kg. LADEE will spend about 5 months reaching nominal (about 50 km) lunar orbit and checking out systems before its 100 day science mission. Total mission cost is estimated at roughly $80 million.