NASA Launches LADEE to Probe Lunar Atmosphere

NASA launched the LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) September 6, 2013 at 11:27 p.m. EDT from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

 This robotic spacecraft's mission is to record the elevated lunar dust on the surface of the moon. This is a six-month mission and LADEE will enter the lunar orbit after landing on the moon in around 30 days. This unmanned spacecraft will then orbit the moon and mine some specific data regarding the lunar atmosphere, the situations near the surface and the impact of the environment on the lunar dust.

The LADEE reported a slight glitch in the explorer's wheels, which are used to dock and stabilize, but the scientists said they were looking into it.

 "The LADEE spacecraft is working as it was designed to under these conditions - there's no indication of anything wrong with the reaction wheels or spacecraft," said S. Pete Worden, Ames center director.

"The LADEE spacecraft is communicating and is very robust. The mission team has ample time to resolve this issue before the spacecraft reaches lunar orbit. We don't have to do anything in a rush," Worden added.

The LADEE observatory arrived at NASA in Wallops in June and it underwent a thorough check for leaks and other defects.

The observatory will aid the scientists and astronomers in understanding the lunar environment and open doors to many age-old unknown facts. This information will also sharpen their understanding about other planetary bodies and celestial neighbors.

"For the first time in 40 years, we have the opportunity to address that mystery," project scientist Richard Elphic, with NASA's Ames Research, stated in a launch broadcast on NASA TV.

"We're taught in grade school and probably junior high that the moon has no atmosphere. Indeed it does have an atmosphere, but it's utterly unlike our own atmosphere. It's very tenuous," Elphic said.

This $280 million mission also consists of an experimental laser optical communications system, which will be integrated in the future missions by NASA including a Mars rover scheduled for launch in 2020 and other planetary probes, Reuters reported.

"This is a science mission, but it has some new technology," Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center, told Reuters in an interview. "We're confident stuff will work, but we certainly will be watching very, very carefully as each of these new things unfolds."