LADEE
LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) — a NASA orbiter that studied the Moon's extremely thin atmosphere and the dust above its surface from a low orbit, October 2013 to April 2014. It also carried a laser communications test that sent data from the Moon at 622 megabits per second. It was flown into the far side on 18 April 2014.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA
- Launched
- September 7, 2013
- Status
- Completed
Mission
LADEE, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, was launched on a Minotaur V from Wallops Island, Virginia, on 7 September 2013 (UTC). It entered lunar orbit on 6 October and, after about a month of checkout, began its science mission from a low orbit around the Moon's equator. The Moon has an atmosphere so thin that its atoms almost never meet one another. LADEE measured its makeup and how it changes, and the dust lifted above the surface, partly to settle whether the glow Apollo astronauts saw on the lunar horizon came from dust. It also carried the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration, which on 18 October 2013 sent data from the Moon to New Mexico by laser at 622 megabits per second, more than six times faster than traditional radio signals, NASA said. Its science phase ran about five months. On 18 April 2014, as planned, it struck the far side of the Moon at about 1,700 m/s.
- 2013LADEE launches toward the Moon on a Minotaur V rocketLaunch
From Wallops Island, Virginia.
- 2013Into lunar orbitArrival
A month of checkout follows before the science mission.
- 2013Data by laser from the MoonMilestone
622 megabits per second to a ground station in New Mexico.
- 2014Into the far sideMission end
As planned, at about 1,700 m/s.
Images
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