posted on Jan, 31 2005 @ 09:26 AM
NASA and NRO to Team-Up on Lunar Spacecraft
By Jeremy Singer
Space News Staff Writer
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and NASA have agreed to cooperate on the development of a lunar spacecraft intended as the first shot in
a series of robotic probes paving the way for future human exploration missions, according to an NRO official.
NASA and the NRO signed an agreement in November to work together on the payload for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter with the hope that the
technology from that effort can be applied to a military satellite expected to be launched around the same timeframe, said Pedro “Pete” Rustan,
director of advanced science and technology at the NRO.
The cooperation will focus on developing a miniature synthetic aperture radar sensor that the lunar probe will use to develop detailed maps of the
Moon’s surface, Rustan said in a Jan. 25 interview.
The lunar probe is expected to begin its mission, which will run over the course of a year, in 2008. The Pentagon is planning to launch the fourth in
a series of small spacecraft known as TacSat or Joint Warfighter spacecraft that year.
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well spy sats to the moon :S is there something to look for..