1. About
  2. Earth
    1. ISS
    2. Aqua
    3. GOES-14
    4. JWST
  3. Moon
    1. LADEE
    2. NRHO
  4. Mercury
    1. MESSENGER
  5. Venus
    1. Venus Express
  6. Mars
    1. MRO
    2. MAVEN
  7. Interplanetary
    1. MAVEN transfer

LADEE

Low lunar orbit (LLO)

Files

Click here to download the trajectory.
Click here to download the run options file.

Description

Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) was a NASA mission to study the lunar exosphere.  It orbited the Moon for just over 6 months in a retrograde low lunar orbit.  MESSENGER used an elliptic, nearly polar orbit that did not precess. Its orbit during the mission’s science phase was fairly stable, but close examination of the orbital elements reveals frequent small adjustments.

LADEE's altitude ranged from just a few km above the lunar surface to 148 km.  We therefore expect its nadir-facing surfaces to be fairly protected from the meteoroid environment.  Spacecraft near the lunar surface may also encounter dust particles originating from the Moon, but these exosphere/ejecta particles are not modeled in MEM.

Graphics

Trajectory in inertial frame

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Trajectory in Sun-centered ecliptic frame

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Meteoroid flux and properties

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Meteoroid directionality in body-fixed frame

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