[meteorite-list] NASA to Host Media Teleconference on LADEE's Planned Moon Impact

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2014 11:40:16 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201404021840.s32IeGk9027970_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

April 1, 2014
     
NASA to Host Media Teleconference on Spacecraft's Planned Moon Impact

NASA will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, April 3, to
discuss the extended mission operations, additional science gathering, and
planned impact in April of the agency's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment
Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft into the lunar surface.

Launched in September 2013, LADEE successfully completed in March its 100-day
prime science phase and is operating in an extended science phase.
Instruments aboard the spacecraft will continue to make science observations
and acquire data at progressively lower altitudes until the planned impact.

Scientists hope to address a long-standing question: Was lunar dust,
electrically charged by sunlight, responsible for the pre-sunrise glow
detected during several Apollo missions above the lunar horizon? LADEE also
is gathering detailed information about the structure and composition of the
thin lunar atmosphere.

A thorough understanding of these characteristics of our nearest celestial
neighbor will help researchers understand other bodies in the solar system,
such as large asteroids, Mercury, and the moons of outer planets.

Teleconference participants are:

-- Joan Salute, LADEE program executive, NASA Headquarters in Washington
-- Butler Hine, LADEE project manager, NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett
Field, Calif.
-- Rick Elphic, project scientist, Ames

Media who want to participate in the teleconference should contact Dwayne
Brown at dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov [1] or 202-358-1726 by 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
Media representatives and the public also may ask questions via Twitter using
the hashtag #AskNASA.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about the LADEE mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ladee

-end-

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

Rachel Hoover
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-0643
rachel.hoover at nasa.gov
Received on Wed 02 Apr 2014 02:40:16 PM PDT