Mission Design for the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)

The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was part of a recently completed lunar impactor mission that successfully hit a target crater on October 9, 2009 and discovered the presence of water-ice in a permanently shadowed region of the lunar south pole. This paper provides an overview of the final LCROSS mission design, including relevant mission requirements and constraints, trajectory design and optimization, force modeling, maneuver plans and ∆V budget, and implementation approach. In addition to discussing pre-launch mission design methodology and analysis, the paper summarizes the operational experience and performance associated with on-orbit execution of the LCROSS mission design. We will describe how we satisfied mission requirements through accurate placement of the impactor within the targeted lunar crater.