LRO Science Payload
LRO's science payload includes seven instruments designed to gather data facilitating human exploration of the moon.
- CRaTER
The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation, CRaTER, will characterize the lunar radiation environment and its biological impacts. - DIVINER
The Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE) will measure lunar surface temperature, providing information essential for future explorations. - LAMP
The Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project will provide images of permanently shadowed areas, in search of surface ice. - LEND
The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector will measure neutron flux and create maps of surface and subsurface hydrogen distribution. It can detect hydrogen in shadowed craters near the lunar poles that may be water ice. - LOLA
The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter will provide a global lunar topographic model and geodetic grid, useful for targeting landing and exploratory locations. - LROC
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera experiment is actually comprised of a pair of a narrow-angle cameras and a wide-angle camera. It will assess meter-scale features and will acquire images of the poles during each orbit in order to characterize the illumination environment. - Mini-RF
The Miniature Radio Frequency will use radar illumination of the surface to provide observations of permanently shadowed areas. It will determine if ice is present in significant amounts in those shadowed areas.
Above, an artist's illustration of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
(Rollover the illustration to identify the on-board science instruments.)