The Lunar Prospector mission management records accumulated by Deputy Mission Manager Sylvia A. Cox document the management of all aspects of the project, from the initial proposal through the extended mission. The collection contains proposals, contracts, correspondence, status reports, planning documents, design reviews, scientific findings, presentations, and news footage.

The Lunar Prospector Discovery Mission to study our moon launched from Kennedy Space Center atop an Athena II rocket on January 7, 1998 UT (January 6 EST). Five days later, it reached the moon and circled it in a polar orbit for the next 19 months. The spacecraft mapped the moon, collecting data about gravity fields, magnetic fields, geochemical composition, and gas-release events. On July 31, 1999 UT the mission team purposely slammed the craft into a permanently shadowed area of a crater near the south pole, in an attempt to find evidence of water ice. Though this dramatic attempt proved unsuccessful, data from the neutron spectrometer experiment showed an abundance of hydrogen. Analysis of these data along with data obtained from the Naval Research Laboratory's Clementine mission strongly suggested that deposits of water ice might be present at both poles of the moon (Feldman, et al. 1998).

Number of containers: 19

Volume: 6.5 cubic feet

Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-government material, researcher must contact the original creator.

Access to portions of the collection is subject to national export restrictions. Contact the repository for a complete inventory.