The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite has imaged the moon’s craggy craters in great detail and identified new possible markers of water ice, NASA scientists reported September 17 at a press briefing.
Launched June 18, 2009 and charged with getting an improved topographical map of the moon, LRO orbits about 50 kilometers (31 miles) above the moon’s surface. Cameras aboard LRO could image a car if it were sitting on the lunar surface, said Richard Vondrak, LRO project scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
So far, the data coming back from LRO’s seven instruments “exceed our wildest expectations,” Vondrak said. “We’re looking at the moon now with new eyes.”