The Lunar Prospector (LP) mission began on January 6, 1998, when the LP spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The objectives of the mission were to determine whether water ice exists at the lunar poles, generate a global compositional map of the lunar surface, detect lunar outgassing, and improve knowledge of the lunar magnetic and gravity fields. Orbit determination of LP performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is conducted as part of the principal science investigation of the lunar gravity field. This paper will describe the JPL effort in support of the LP Gravity Investigation. This support includes high precision orbit determination, gravity model validation, and data editing. A description of the mission and its trajectory will be provided first, followed by a discussion of the orbit determination estimation procedure and models. Accuracies will be examined in terms of orbit-to-orbit solution differences, as a function of oblateness model truncation, and inclination in the plane-of-sky. Long term predictions for several gravity fields will be compared to the reconstructed orbits to demonstrate the accuracy of the orbit determination and oblateness fields developed by the Principal Gravity Investigator.
Lunar Prospector Orbit Determination Uncertainties Using the High Resolution Lunar Gravity Models
Astrodynamics Specialist Conference ; 1999 ; Girdwood, AK, United States
1999-01-01
Conference paper
No indication
English
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2000
|Lunar Prospector Orbit Determination Results
NTIS | 1998
|Lunar Prospector orbit determination results
AIAA | 1998
|Lunar Prospector Orbit Determination Results
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1998
|