posted 12-17-2023 09:28 AM               

Space Cover 732: Lunar Prospector

Today's Space Cover of the Week was postmarked on January 8, 1998, for the launch of the robotic Lunar Prospector mission to orbit the Moon. It was postmarked at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA, home of the Lunar Prospector Mission Control. The cachet on the cover was designed and applied by me.

Lunar Prospector was one of the NASA Discovery Program missions. It was designed to perform a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon. This included mapping the surface composition and locating lunar resources, measuring magnetic and gravity fields, and studying outgassing events. The data from this mission, which carried only scientific instruments, complemented the image data from the 1994 Clementine mission, which carried mostly cameras. Clementine had detected the presence of water frozen down inside some permanently shadowed craters near the lunar south pole, and Lunar Prospector verified and mapped significant amounts of frozen water inside those craters.

Lunar Prospector coasted for four days to the Moon before being inserted into a polar capture orbit on January 12, 1998. It incrementally lowered its lunar orbit to a circular 62-mile (100 km) high mapping orbit on January 16, 1998. The probe spent 11 months taking data before being lowered to a 25-mile (40 km) orbit for higher resolution studies on December 19. 1998. On January 28, 1999, Lunar Prospector began an extended mission, changing to a 9x28-mile (15x45 km) orbit.

The mission ended on July 31, 1999, when Lunar Prospector was steered into a deliberate collision with the Moon in a permanently shadowed area of the Shoemaker crater near the lunar south pole. It was hoped that the impact would liberate water vapor from the suspected ice deposits in the crater and that the plume would be detectable from Earth; however, no such plume was observed. The cover above was postmarked that day at Moffett Field, and again the cachet was designed and applied by me.

The selection of the Shoemaker crater was especially poignant because a small vial of the ashes of the late lunar geologist Eugene Shoemaker was onboard. Shoemaker trained the Apollo crews on lunar geology, earning effusive praise in John Young's autobiography "Forever Young". Shoemaker was also the co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy which crashed into the planet Jupiter in 1994. It was a fitting end for him to be buried on the Moon in the crater named after him…

Above: An artist's concept of Lunar Prospector in orbit around the Moon. (NASA)

Anyone else have some favorite Lunar Prospector covers? Let's post them!

posted 12-17-2023 05:38 PM               

As Ray pointed out, some of Dr. Shoemaker's ashes were aboard the Lunar Prospector and will remain on the moon forever. Dr. Shoemaker was tragically killed at age 69 in a car crash while in Australia to study a crater.

posted 12-18-2023 05:52 AM               

Apparently the first human remains to be placed into orbit were those of Gene Roddenberry - creator of Star Trek, whose ashes were sent aloft on STS-52.

The first human remains to escape Earth's gravity and reach another celestial body are the above-mentioned Eugene M. Shoemaker's on Lunar Prospector.

And the first human remains to leave the Solar System will be Clyde Tombaugh's (the discoverer of the 'planet' Pluto. I still think of it as a planet 😐) on New Horizons.

posted 12-18-2023 08:51 AM               

It was Jan. 6, 1998, when the circular 652-pound moon-bound space probe left Space Launch Complex 46, which was the first commercial launch of a rocket from Pad 46 operated under license by Spaceport Florida. The old Trident II launch site had a face-lift to accommodate small commercial space launch operations of both the Athena I and II multi-staged solid propellant vehicles.

Bob's nice autograph inscription by Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, in my opinion, is not a common or too much seen signature of the pioneer lunar and comet astronomer. His wife Carolyn, also a noted comet discoverer, and family members attended the Cape liftoff of the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in which the new 100-foot tall Athena II rocket, as Ray mentioned, flew the remains of Dr. Shoemaker inside a memorial capsule of the lunar probe as the only person ever laid to rest on the moon. After the launch, I was fortunate in being able to meet the family, and needless to say, they were so thrilled at the successful liftoff in honor of the legendary planetary geologist.

Here are some other Lunar Prospector launch day covers from the Cape and Moffett Field. Those that have the official NASA Lunar Prospector emblem as their printed cachets were used as NASA Exchange covers for the mission. The project logo covers were in addition postmarked using a special approved USPS pictorial cancellation with the same type cancel designs at Cape Canaveral for Launch Station and Moffett Field, CA, for Mission Control Station at NASA's Ames Research Center.