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the moon our nearest celestial neighbor

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has intrigued and inspired us since the

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dawn of humanity during the Apollo

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program 12 astronauts landed on its cold

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and cratered surface but they couldn't

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stay now NASA's constellation program

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begins a new journey to live and work on

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the moon setting the stage for future

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long-duration human exploration today

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two spacecraft Scouts are poised to lift

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off together aboard a powerful Atlas 5

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rocket on the first launch at this new

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era

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they are the lunar reconnaissance

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orbiter and the lunar crater observation

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and sensing satellite or LRO and L cross

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one rocket one destination two critical

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missions together they're helping us

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welcome to the show I'm your host George

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Diller I'm here at NASA's Kennedy Space

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Center in Florida

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inside the Apollo Saturn v Center behind

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me is an actual massive 363 foot long

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Saturn 5 rocket just like those but

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boosted the Apollo astronauts on

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America's first human missions to the

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moon today NASA is preparing to return

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to the moon

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beginning with the Lunar Reconnaissance

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Orbiter and a lunar crater observation

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and sensing satellite this upcoming

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launch aboard an Atlas 5 rocket is the

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critical first step in the new

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constellation program on today's show

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we're going to take you inside both of

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these exciting missions and find out

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what it takes to launch two spacecraft

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at once our first guest is Kathy petty

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deputy project manager for the Lunar

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Reconnaissance Orbiter she stopped by

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the NASA direct studio to give us the

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inside story on this moon mapping

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mission the lunar reconnaissance orbiter

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project or LRO's main goal is we're

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really the first mission the first step

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that NASA's taking back to exploring our

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universe and so what we really need to

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do is have a reconnaissance mission you

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know get more data one of the things

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that we want to do is is go back to the

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moon you know we've been there before we

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we have really awesome datasets from our

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previous missions from the Apollo era to

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to the other spacecraft that have gone

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so we want to build upon those datasets

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that we already have and and most of

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those datasets really focused on the

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equatorial region of the Moon so now we

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want to go back and say hey let's map

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the entire moon so so have more of a

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global perspective or a comprehensive

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atlas of the moon and help whoever wants

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to to join us in exploring our universe

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or or taking that next step back they

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need to have a more comprehensive atlas

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of the moon so that they know where to

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go what to do what to expect that

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they help them out we're like a scout

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mission for the for the exploration well

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well roughly a couple of days after

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we've we've launched we will begin what

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we call the lunar orbit insertion burn

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and and that burn will help us or help

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the moon and us get captured by the moon

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and so what happens during that burn is

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LRO starts to get closer to the moon and

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the moon will capture LRO and once once

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once we have that confirmation that the

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moon is captured as we call that lunar

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acquisition and then after we have lunar

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acquisition for we're sure that we have

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a stable orbit then we will begin a

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series of burns that are roughly a day

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apart from each other series of four or

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five burns that begin to lower LRO into

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her final orbit which is roughly 50

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kilometers above the moon or 31 miles

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and that's LRO's polar orbiting orbit

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we're where we lower the spacecraft low

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enough so that so that the instruments

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can focus on the surface of the moon and

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begin the data collection that that is

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what our mission is all about to create

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that comprehensive atlas of the moon now

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an interesting offshoot of our data is

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that our data will also be made

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available to Google moon so that anyone

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that has access to the web or Google

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will be able to punch in I don't know

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one like Shackleton crater and be able

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to see all the cool data from LRO pop up

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radon they're their own personal

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computers at home NASA we're all about

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exploring and pushing our our knowledge

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across the boundaries and and LRO even

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though taking us back to the moon where

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we've been before that there's a lot

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about our moon that we don't know and a

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lot about our moon that we want to use

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as we begin to look out into the

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universe and decide you know where we

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want to go next so having a

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reconnaissance or a scout mission that

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that that begins to take us out is is a

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perfect fit into what NASA is all about

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and what what people like me who've

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dreamed about working for NASA they've

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always wanted to do you know explore

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look out beyond who and what we are

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today and LRO is the perfect fit for

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that type of vision for all now that we

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know what to expect from the Lunar

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Reconnaissance Orbiter we turn our

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attention to its sister payload the

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lunar crater observation and sensing

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satellite its goal is to hunt for

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evidence of water ice using a hard

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hitting method dr. Kimberly Enic oh well

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cross payload specialist explains L

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cross mission has to impact events the

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first is the upper stage of the launch

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vehicle that we take with us on our

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four-month mission into space and we

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separate from it and it's traveling to

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hit the moon at 5,600 miles per hour

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it's going to impact one of these lunar

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permanently shadowed basins of a crater

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on the lunar poles and it's going to hit

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a particular place it's going to hit a

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place on the moon that we think there's

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water scientists who believe that there

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is water on the moon don't know whether

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it's smooth or chunky peanut butter type

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so where you hit is important the

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secondary impact is the L cross payload

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which will impact somewhere between

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three to five kilometers away from the

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first impact so we're gonna hit another

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part of that crater we've targeted this

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crater because it's got a strong

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hydrogen concentration we're gonna

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sample two parts of this crater and so

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the two impact events will tell us

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something about the distribution of this

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hydrogen concentration or perhaps a

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distribution of water if the hydrogen is

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the live images of our what we're taking

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with our science payload as we're going

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into the surface for the last four

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minutes of the mission which is 600

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kilometers down to the surface will be

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stream live on a public channel L course

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is important because that it provides us

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a way to confirm the presence or absence

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of water ice at a particular location on

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the lunar pole there's water ice there

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or water in some form it means that for

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future missions to the moon and perhaps

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beyond there's there an institute a

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resource that's there a resource that's

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on the on the surface of that planet you

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don't need to bring it with you so for

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the human species in terms of exploring

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the rest of the solar system so getting

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out out of low Earth orbit and we need

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water with us if we can find a resource

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of water on the moon that will be an

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amazing step forward and a great

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resource to take advantage of in a very