What powers Prospector?
Lunar Prospector is run by rechargeable, solar-powered nickel-hydrogen batteries. back How big is Prospector? The spacecraft is shaped like a drum, 4.25 feet (1.3 meters) -high, with a diameter of 4.5 feet (1.4 meters). When full of fuel, Prospector weighs 650 pounds (295 kilograms). The three masts are each 8 feet (2.4 meters) -long. back What is unique about Prospector compared to previous lunar missions? The Apollo missions only mapped about 25 percent of the lunar surface, around the Moon’s equator. Prospector will map the entire lunar surface for the first time. Additionally, Prospector will be much less expensive, and carry fewer experiments, than the Apollo missions. It is NASA’s third Discovery mission and the first competitively selected Discovery mission. back What will Prospector tell us? Lunar Prospector will address many of the unanswered questions about the Moon’s resources, origin and structure that have been posed by NASA’s Lunar Exploration Science Working Group (LExSW
