LADEE, the NASA lunar orbiter, has crashed on the moon, ending a mission which lasted more than six months. The craft was intentionally destroyed by mission controllers on Friday, 18 April.
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) was launched in September 2013, on a 100-day mission to explore the lunar surface. The spacecraft began its investigation of the scarce particles and gases floating above the moon on 10 November.
LADEE was also used to test a new laser-based communications system that could allow data to be sent to and from space vehicles 10 to 100 times faster than today.
The craft collided into the moon traveling at 3,600 miles an hour. This leads NASA officials to believe the craft likely shattered on impact.
LADEE was sent to final impact on the dark side of the moon. Mission controllers lowered the orbit of the craft to just 33 feet above the lunar surface. This nearly guaranteed the spacecraft would collide with a mountain or the side of an impact crater. According to NASA, LADEE crashed soon after crossing over onto the far side of the moon. Impact likely occurred between 12:30 and 1:22 a.m. EDT early on Friday morning, according to mission controllers. The exact location of the crash is yet to be determined. The crash site was chosen to keep the craft away from artifacts left behind by the Apollo missions, which ended over 40 year ago.
The lunar mission was able to identify and measure the gases in the thin atmosphere of the moon, including neon, titanium and magnesium. The region just above the lunar surface also contains small particles of moon dust, scattered by frequent impacts from small micrometeorites. LADEE completed its intended mission and was able to conduct additional science, never intended by mission planners.
Just three days before being destroyed, the spacecraft survived a lunar eclipse, which many mission planners believed would end LADEE's mission. Spirits were high among mission controllers on the day the orbiter was designed to come to rest on our planetary companion.
"Having flown through the eclipse and survived, the team is actually feeling very good," Butler Hine, LADEE project manager, said.
A pair of lunar orbiters that comprised the GRAIL experiment were the last NASA craft to be intentionally crashed on the moon, in 2012.
"It's bittersweet knowing we have received the final transmission from the LADEE spacecraft after spending years building it in-house at Ames, and then being in constant contact as it circled the moon for the last several months," Hine said.
