The Objects > General Questions
Numbers questions
Dynamo Duck:
So far, the LRO has accumulated close to three million images. How many images is the craft expected to send back before it wears out? I'd also like to know how much of the lunar surface has been covered in that close to three million images, or if its all been covered, how many images did it take to achieve full coverage.
Also, out of all these images, how many have been looked at by the people doing the Crater survey and Boulder Wars?
Cheers. Ewan.
kodemunkey:
I think they (The LRO Team) want to generate somewhere in the region of 180 Terrabytes of images, that much i do know.
jules:
Good questions DD - I'll try to find some answers. I did read somewhere that the mission is funded until September 2012. After that who knows as further funding is needed to keep the mission going. I think there is also a plan to put the LRO in a fuel saving elliptical orbit at some point. I'll hunt down some info - or better still, someone who knows!
jules:
And while I'm hunting I just came across a site which contains a wealth of LRO information:
"During the period Aug. 10 to Sept. 6, 2011, the LRO orbit was adjusted by making it more elliptical. Two station-keeping maneuvers on Aug. 10 lowered LRO from its nominal altitude of ~50 km to an altitude that dipped as low as nearly 21 km (periapsis) as it passed over the moon's surface.
The spacecraft remained in this elliptical orbit for 28 days, long enough for the moon to completely rotate. This allowed full coverage of the surface by LROC's WAC (Wide Angle Camera). At the end of the cycle (Sept. 6, 2011), the spacecraft returned to its nominal 50 ±15 km near-circular orbit with another set of station-keeping maneuvers. "
from LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) + LCROSS
jules:
Today's LROC News item: 9th PDS release.
"To date, the LROC Team has delivered over 655,904 LROC images to the NASA Planetary Data System."
(Still working on the answers DD!)
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