NASA Robotic Spacecraft Lifts Off to Probe Lunar Dust

NASA sent a small satellite to the moon on Friday at 11:27 pm EDT from the Virginia coast. The satellite was sent with an "unmanned" rocket.  LADEE or Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer is designed to look for dust coming from the lunar surface, which is a mystery reported decades ago by Apollo astronauts. This is the first time in 40 years that NASA has the opportunity to research this phenomenon.

LADEE will explore the moon's atmosphere from an orbit of 31 miles above the lunar surface. "The tenuous atmosphere, which contains argon, helium, sodium, potassium and other elements, may hold clues about how water came to be trapped inside craters on the moon's frozen poles." The moon's atmosphere however, is more delicate tan ours.

The mission will take 30 days and includes three passes around Earth timed perfectly so that in the final orbit LADEE will be able to capture the moon's gravity.

"The $280 million mission is expected to last about six months."

Citation:
Klotz, Irene. Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 06 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Sept. 2013.   <http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-robotic-spacecraft-lifts-off-probe-lunar-dust-035827410--finance.html>.