NASA Developing Robotic Scouts For Lunar Exploration

Published: Jan 23, 2006
Source: www.aviationweek.com



Pure science is taking a backseat to long-term exploration goals as NASA prepares to send robotic scouts to the Moon. Still, a rich scientific haul will be inevitable, even without the peer-review wrangling that normally picks targets for expensive space-science missions.

Work on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) set for launch in 2008, and on the lander known only as RLEP-2--the second mission in the Robotic Lunar Exploration Program--is being driven more by the need to find a place for humans to land again than by unfettered curiosity about Earth's huge satellite.

"When we compete instruments or missions on the science side, we ask people to describe the scientific investigation they wish to pursue, and it's important to reference things like National Academies' priority for science," says Laurie A. Leshin, director of sciences and exploration at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. "In this case, these proposals were not written that way."continue..