Been There/Done That-Clementine 1994
Clementine was a joint project between the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and NASA. The objective of the mission was to test sensors and spacecraft components under extended exposure to space and to make scientific observations of the moon and the near-Earth asteroid 1620 Geographos.
Following launch on January 7, 1998 UT aboard a three-stage Athena 2 rocket, the Lunar Prospector had a 105-hour cruise to the moon. During the cruise, the three instrument booms were deployed. The MAG and APS collected calibration data, while the GRS, NS, and ER outgassed for one day, after which they also collected calibration data in cis-lunar space.The craft was inserted into an 11.6-hour period capture orbit about the moon at the end of the cruise phase. After 24 hours Lunar Prospector was inserted into a 3.5-hour period intermediate orbit, followed 24 hours later (on January 13, 1998) by transfer into a 92x153 km preliminary mapping orbit, and then on January 16 by insertion into the near-circular 100 km altitude nominal lunar polar mapping orbit with an inclination of 90° and a period of 118 minutes.
Lunar calibration data was collected during the 11.6- and 3.5-hour orbits. Lunar mapping data collection started shortly after the 118 minute orbit was achieved. The data collection was periodically interrupted during the mission as planned for orbital maintenance burns, which took place to re-circularize the orbit whenever the periselene or aposelene was more than 20 to 25 km from the 100 km nominal orbit - about once a month. On December 19, 1998, a maneuver lowered the orbit to 40 km to perform higher resolution studies.
The orbit was altered again on January 28, 1999, to a 15x45 km orbit, ending the 1 year primary mission and beginning the extended mission. The mission ended on July 31, 1999, at 9:52:02 UT when Lunar Prospector was deliberately targeted to impact in a permanently shadowed area of a crater near the lunar south pole. It was hoped that the impact would liberate water vapor from the suspected ice deposits in the crater and that the plume would be detectable from Earth, however, no plume was observed.
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Phobos
Iapetus
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