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Frontiers in Science Public Lecture SeriesLunar Prospector and the Upcoming Mars Odyssey Mission
Los Alamos National Laboratory has provided four experiments to two planetary
missions run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The
first three experiments were gamma-ray, neutron and alpha-particle spectrometers
placed aboard Lunar Prospector, whose main purpose was to map the chemical
composition of the Moon. The fourth experiment is a neutron spectrometer
placed aboard Mars Odyssey-2001 to map the portion of the water table
within about three feet of the surface of Mars. Lunar Prospector was launched
in January, 1998 and was intentionally crashed into a permanently shaded
crater near the south pole of the Moon in July, 1999, to look for water
ice. Although the biggest telescopes on, and in orbit about the Earth
were not able to see the "splash," our neutron spectrometer
did find significant amounts of water ice within permanently shaded craters
near both poles of the Moon. Mars Odyssey was launched successfully on
April 7, 2001 and is expected to arrive at Mars on October 24, 2001. Our
neutron spectrometer is presently operating very well during the cruise
to Mars, giving us the hope that we will be able to see the martian water
table. It should also allow us to map the seasonal variation of dry-ice
that covers both martian poles during their respective winters, over a
period of one martian year (which is approximately two Earth years). Details
of the experiments, pictures of the missions, and early scientific results
will be presented.
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