Instrument
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) is designed to address two of the prime LRO measurement requirements: 1) Assess meter-scale features to facilitate selection of future landing sites on the Moon, 2) Acquire images of the poles to characterize the polar illumination environment (100-meter scale), identifying regions of permanent shadow and permanent or near-permanent illumination over a full lunar year.
In addition to these two main objectives, the LROC team plans to conduct meter-scale mapping of the polar regions, make 3-dimensional observations to enable derivation of meter-scale surface features, perform global multispectral imaging, and produce a global landform map. LROC images will also be used to map and determine current impact hazards by re-photographing Apollo image areas.
LROC consists of two Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) to provide 0.5 meter-scale panchromatic images over a 5 km swath, a Wide Angle Camera (WAC) to provide images at a scale of 100 meters/pixel in seven color bands over a 60 km swath, and a Sequence and Compressor System (SCS) supporting data acquisition for both cameras. LROC is a modified version of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s ConTeXt Camera (CTX) and MARs Color Imager (MARCI) provided by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) in San Diego, CA.
Official LROC Website:
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/index.html
NASA LROC Factsheet (english)
NASA LROC Factsheet (deutsch)
