Moon Probe Gets Finishing Touches

May 12, 2008 -- A robotic probe designed to scout out a landing site for America's return to the moon is coming to life at a spacecraft factory in Greenbelt, Md.

The heart of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, called LRO, is a high-resolution digital camera that can capture lunar features less than a meter in size. NASA wants the detailed view before selecting where to send its next generation of lunar explorers.

The last time a person set foot on the moon was in 1972.

The camera, built at Arizona State University, will be set into the spacecraft on Tuesday, said Skip Derra, a spokesman with the Tempe, Ariz.-based school. It arrived at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland on Friday.

The imager is the fifth of six instruments to be installed on LRO. Already aboard:

• an ultraviolet spectrograph to search for surface ice and frost in the polar regions;
• a cosmic ray detector to assess the radiation environment around the moon;
• a sensor to measure surface temperatures as cold as minus 406 Fahrenheit (minus 243 degrees C);
• lasers to produce three-dimensional maps on a scale of inches rather than feet or miles of the moon's rough surface;
• a hydrogen detector to scout for surface water ice;
• a mini-radar system, flying as a technology demonstration, to look for subsurface ice.