NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Passes EMC and Other Environmental Testing

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) successfully passed EMC testing at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. The orbiter will carry seven instruments to provide scientists with detailed maps of the lunar surface to increase our understanding of the moon’s topography, lighting conditions, mineralogical resources, and natural resources. The spacecraft will spend at least a year in low, polar orbit approximately 30 miles above the lunar surface while the instruments work together to collect detailed information about the moon’s environment. The LRO also underwent thermal vacuum testing, spin and vibration testing, and acoustics testing. According to Dave Everett, LRO systems engineer at Goddard, “We have cooked LRO, frozen it, shaken it, and blasted it with electromagnetic waves, and it still operates.”Having passed these testing milestones, the LRO will be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be prepared to be prepared for its April 24^th launch aboard an Atlas V rocket. Accompanying the spacecraft will be the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, a mission that will search for water ice on the moon’s surface.Find further details on the NASA website.