{ "id": 3785, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3785/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "LAMP Observes the LCROSS Impact", "description": "A two-ton Atlas Centaur rocket body, part of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), struck the floor of Cabeus crater, near the south pole of the moon, at 11:31 UT on October 9, 2009. The purpose of the crash was to create a plume of debris that could be examined for the presence of water and other chemicals in the lunar regolith.The Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument aboard Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) observed the tenuous vapor cloud created by the LCROSS impact. LAMP is LRO's \"night vision.\" Most of the time, it uses the ultraviolet light in starlight to peer into deep shadows on the moon's surface. For the LCROSS impact, LAMP was pointed just above the lunar horizon to watch for the arrival of a rapidly expanding cloud of vaporized debris from the crash.In this animation, the viewer looks down the LAMP boresight and through its narrow window. The LAMP sensor lights up as the leading edge of the expanding vapor cloud passes through its field of view. What's shown here is actually the difference between the data recorded after the LCROSS impact and that recorded on LRO's previous orbit. See this entry for more about the process of subtracting the background to enhance the LAMP signal. || ", "release_date": "2010-10-21T13:55:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:00.108770-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 489301, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003785/lcross_lamp_date.0512.jpg", "filename": "lcross_lamp_date.0512.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "The LAMP sensor slit scans the lunar horizon, lighting up as it encounters the vapor cloud created by the LCROSS impact. This version includes a date/time overlay.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 }, "main_video": { "id": 489296, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003785/lcross_lamp.mp4", "filename": "lcross_lamp.mp4", "media_type": "Movie", "alt_text": "The LAMP sensor slit scans the lunar horizon, lighting up as it encounters the vapor cloud created by the LCROSS impact. This version includes a date/time overlay.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 }, "main_credits": { "Visualizations by": [ { "name": "Ernie Wright", "employer": "UMBC" } ] }, "progress": "Complete", "media_groups": [ { "id": 352632, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3785/#media_group_352632", "widget": "Basic text with HTML", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "A two-ton Atlas Centaur rocket body, part of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), struck the floor of Cabeus crater, near the south pole of the moon, at 11:31 UT on October 9, 2009. The purpose of the crash was to create a plume of debris that could be examined for the presence of water and other chemicals in the lunar regolith.

The Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument aboard Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) observed the tenuous vapor cloud created by the LCROSS impact. LAMP is LRO's \"night vision.\" Most of the time, it uses the ultraviolet light in starlight to peer into deep shadows on the moon's surface. For the LCROSS impact, LAMP was pointed just above the lunar horizon to watch for the arrival of a rapidly expanding cloud of vaporized debris from the crash.

In this animation, the viewer looks down the LAMP boresight and through its narrow window. The LAMP sensor lights up as the leading edge of the expanding vapor cloud passes through its field of view. What's shown here is actually the difference between the data recorded after the LCROSS impact and that recorded on LRO's previous orbit. See this entry for more about the process of subtracting the background to enhance the LAMP signal.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 352633, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3785/#media_group_352633", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "The LAMP sensor slit scans the lunar horizon, lighting up as it encounters the vapor cloud created by the LCROSS impact. 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This version omits the date/time overlay.", "width": 640, "height": 360, "pixels": 230400 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 352635, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3785/#media_group_352635", "widget": "Basic text with HTML", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 352636, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3785/#media_group_352636", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Four minutes before the LCROSS impact, the view across the terrain of the lunar south pole shows LRO and LCROSS approaching the impact site, with Earth in the background.", "items": [ { "id": 334246, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 489311, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003785/lcross_lamp_earth.jpg", "filename": "lcross_lamp_earth.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Four minutes before the LCROSS impact, the view across the terrain of the lunar south pole shows LRO and LCROSS approaching the impact site, with Earth in the background.", "width": 2560, "height": 1440, "pixels": 3686400 } }, { "id": 334245, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 489310, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003785/lcross_lamp_earth_web.png", "filename": "lcross_lamp_earth_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Four minutes before the LCROSS impact, the view across the terrain of the lunar south pole shows LRO and LCROSS approaching the impact site, with Earth in the background.", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 334244, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 489309, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003785/lcross_lamp_earth.tif", "filename": "lcross_lamp_earth.tif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Four minutes before the LCROSS impact, the view across the terrain of the lunar south pole shows LRO and LCROSS approaching the impact site, with Earth in the background.", "width": 2560, "height": 1440, "pixels": 3686400 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 352637, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3785/#media_group_352637", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "About 40 seconds after impact, the leading edge of an expanding vapor cloud passes through LAMP's field of view.", "items": [ { "id": 334249, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 489314, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003785/lcross_lamp_cloud.jpg", "filename": "lcross_lamp_cloud.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "About 40 seconds after impact, the leading edge of an expanding vapor cloud passes through LAMP's field of view.", "width": 2560, "height": 1440, "pixels": 3686400 } }, { "id": 334248, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 489313, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003785/lcross_lamp_cloud_web.png", "filename": "lcross_lamp_cloud_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "About 40 seconds after impact, the leading edge of an expanding vapor cloud passes through LAMP's field of view.", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 334247, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 489312, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003700/a003785/lcross_lamp_cloud.tif", "filename": "lcross_lamp_cloud.tif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "About 40 seconds after impact, the leading edge of an expanding vapor cloud passes through LAMP's field of view.", "width": 2560, "height": 1440, "pixels": 3686400 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 352638, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3785/#media_group_352638", "widget": "Basic text with HTML", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "

 

In this version of the animation, overlays have been added comprising callouts and a graph of the LAMP sensor data that builds up over time.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} } ], "studio": "svs", "funding_sources": [ "LRO" ], "credits": [ { "role": "Animator", "people": [ { "name": "Ernie Wright", "employer": "UMBC" } ] }, { "role": "Producer", "people": [ { "name": "Chris Smith", "employer": "HTSI" } ] }, { "role": "Scientist", "people": [ { "name": "Randy Gladstone", "employer": "SwRI" } ] } ], "missions": [ "LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)" ], "series": [ "LRO - Animations", "The Moon" ], "tapes": [], "papers": [ "Gladstone, G. Randall et al. (2010). LRO-LAMP observations of the LCROSS impact plume. Science, 330(6003)", "Gladstone, G. Randall et al. (2010). LRO-LAMP observations of the LCROSS impact plume. Science, 330(6003)" ], "datasets": [ { "name": "JPL/Horizon Orbital Ephemerides", "common_name": "", "platform": null, "sensor": null, "type": "Ephemeris", "organizations": [ "NASA/JPL" ], "description": "Planetary ephemerides", "credit": "", "url": "http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons", "date_range": "November 6, 2009" }, { "name": "Digital Elevation Map", "common_name": "DEM", "platform": "LRO", "sensor": "LOLA", "type": "Other", "organizations": [], "description": "", "credit": "", "url": "", "date_range": "August 2009 - September 2010" }, { "name": "Lyman alpha and UV", "common_name": "LRO LAMP", "platform": "LRO", "sensor": "LAMP", "type": "Data Compilation", "organizations": [], "description": "", "credit": "", "url": "", "date_range": "October 9, 2009" } ], "nasa_science_categories": [ "Planets & Moons" ], "keywords": [ "Elevation data", "HDTV", "LAMP", "LRO", "Lunar", "Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter", "Moon" ], "recommended_pages": [], "related": [ { "id": 4054, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4054/", "page_type": "Visualization", "title": "LAMP Observes GRAIL Impact", "description": "The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission comprised a pair of satellites that together measured the gravity field of the Moon. GRAIL ended its mission with a planned impact into the side of a lunar mountain on December 17, 2012. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) maneuvered into an orbit that would allow it to observe the impact. One of LRO's instruments, the Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP), looked for the chemical signatures of a number of elements, including hydrogen and mercury, in the dust plume kicked up by the impact.This animation shows the relative positions of GRAIL and LRO at the time of the impact, as well as the view from LAMP as it scanned for the dust plume. The LAMP sensor is a 6.0° x 0.3° slit that was positioned to look over the limb of the Moon, so that it would be pointed into the tenuous dust plume with only the sky in the background. This observation was possible, in part, because GRAIL impacted on the night side of the Moon, where there was no concern that LAMP's sensitive detector could be blinded by sunlit terrain. From Earth, the Moon was a waxing crescent at the time of the impact. || ", "release_date": "2013-03-19T13:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:18.096992-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 467303, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004000/a004054/grail.0519.jpg", "filename": "grail.0519.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "LRO flies over the north pole of the Moon, where it has a very good view of the GRAIL impact. The second part is the view from LRO through LAMP's slit, showing the impact and the resulting plume. The orbits, impact locations, terrain, LAMP field of view, and starfield are accurately rendered.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }