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Posted by baalke on October 3, 2007, 3:43 pm
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Oct. 3, 2007
Dwayne Brown/Melissa Mathews
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726/1272
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov, melissa.mathews-1@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 07-219
NASA SPACECRAFT TO CARRY RUSSIAN SCIENCE INSTRUMENTS
WASHINGTON - NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos have
agreed to fly two Russian scientific instruments on NASA spacecraft
that will conduct unprecedented robotic missions to the moon and
Mars.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and Roscosmos head Anatoly
Perminov
signed agreements in Moscow on Oct. 3 to add the instruments to two
future missions: the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled to
launch in October 2008, and the Mars Science Laboratory, an advanced
robotic rover scheduled to launch in 2009.
Russia's Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector on the Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter will search for evidence of water ice and help
understand astronauts' exposure to radiation during future trips to
the moon. The instrument will map concentrations of hydrogen that may
be found on and just beneath the lunar surface.
Roscosmos' Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument on the Mars Science
Laboratory will measure hydrogen to analyze neutrons interacting with
the Martian surface. The principal investigator for both instruments
is Igor Mitrofanov of the Institute for Space Research of the Russian
Academy of Science.
"Russia's contribution to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars
Science Laboratory missions continues a rich and long-standing
tradition of cooperation between NASA and Russia for scientific
research in space," Griffin said. "The Institute for Space Research
has a track record of delivering excellent instrumentation, and we
are delighted to have international participation on these missions
to explore the moon and send a robotic laboratory to Mars."
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will circle the moon for at least a
year, obtaining measurements necessary to identify future robotic and
human landing sites. It also will look for potential lunar resources
and document aspects of the lunar radiation environment.
The Mars Science Laboratory rover is a mobile research platform that
will explore a local region of the Martian surface as a potential
habitat for past or present life. The rover will carry a suite of
highly capable analytic and remote sensing instruments to investigate
planetary processes that influence habitability, including the role
of water.
For more about NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and the
Mars Exploration Program, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
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