John Bluck Nov. 14, 2005
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: (650) 604-5026 or 604-9000
E-mail: jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 05-62AR

NASA AMES LEADS ROBOTIC LUNAR EXPLORATION PROGRAM

Today, on the 36th anniversary of Apollo 12, the second manned lunar
landing, NASA announced that it has assigned management of its
Robotic Lunar Exploration Program to NASA Ames Research Center in
California's Silicon Valley.

Returning astronauts to the moon will start with robotic missions
between 2008 and 2011 to study, map and learn about the lunar
surface. These early missions will help determine lunar landing sites
and whether resources, such as oxygen, hydrogen and metals, are
available for use in NASA's long-term lunar exploration objectives.
The assignment marks a rebirth of robotic space flight work at NASA
Ames, which has a history of spearheading unmanned space launches.

"The Robotic Lunar Exploration Program is a critical element of
NASA's Vision for Space Exploration," said Exploration Systems
Mission Directorate Associate Administrator Dr. Scott Horowitz. "Data
collected will help determine where we go, and what we find during
our first human missions to the lunar surface."

"Ames is delighted to be the home of the new Robotic Lunar
Exploration Program," said G. Scott Hubbard, Ames' director. "Our
center has a 40-year history of excellent space flight programs and
project management: the Pioneer 6-13 series, the Galileo Probe and
Lunar Prospector, as well as a lunar magnetic field instrument for
four Apollo missions starting with Apollo 12 in 1969. We will apply
all this experience to make RLEP successful," Hubbard noted.

Launched on Jan. 6, 1998, from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla.,
Lunar Prospector reached the moon in four days. The mission was the
last NASA voyage to our nearest neighbor in space.

The spacecraft orbited the moon and gathered data that resulted in
evidence that water ice exists in shadowed craters near the lunar
south and north poles, the first precise gravity map of the entire
lunar surface, confirmation of the presence of local magnetic fields
that create the two smallest magnetospheres in the solar system and
the first global maps of the moon's elemental composition.

Returning robots, and then astronauts, to the moon provides
opportunities to develop and mature technologies needed for long-term
survival on other worlds, according to scientists.

"An exploration science program with a sustained human presence on
the moon gives us the opportunity to conduct fundamental science in
lunar geology, history of the solar system, physics and the
biological response to partial (Earth) gravity," said Christopher
McKay, lunar exploration program scientist at Ames.

"Establishing research stations on the moon will give us the
experience and capabilities to extend to Mars and beyond," robotics
deputy program manager Butler Hine of Ames noted.

For high-resolution images of the moon and historic information, please visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2004/moon/moon.html,

http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/,

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunarprosp.html, and

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast31jul99_1.htm

Apollo 12 video footage, marking the 36th anniversary of the second
manned lunar landing, will be available on NASA TV's Video File (via
the NASA TV Media Channel) beginning at noon PST (3 p.m. EST),
Monday, Nov. 14, and will continue through Friday, Nov. 18. Please
see an on-line schedule at:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Schedule.html

NASA TV's public, education and media channels are available on an
MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72
degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical
polarization. In Alaska and Hawaii, they are on AMC-7 at 137 degrees
west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal
polarization. A Digital Video Broadcast-compliant integrated receiver
decoder is required for reception. For digital downlink information
for each NASA TV channel and access to NASA TV's public channel on
the Web, please visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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