A car-sized NASA craft called Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will test the moon's thin atmosphere to see if it contains any particles from the dusty surface.
Understanding the composition of the lunar atmosphere will help scientists understand other heavenly bodies and asteroids, a NASA press release reported.
"The moon's tenuous atmosphere may be more common in the solar system than we thought," John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington, said. "Further understanding of the moon's atmosphere may also help us better understand our diverse solar system and its evolution."
The LADEE mission will mark the first flight of the Minotaur V rocket, and the first time a launch from Virginia Space Coast launch facility will leave Earth's atmosphere.
NASA officials will also use the mission to test a "high-data-rate laser communication system," that will allow correspondence between outer-worldly satellites.
LADEE was built using Modular Common Spacecraft Bus architecture, which allows several models to be made and tested at one time. The bus structure is made from a lightweight carbon composite, and is a "general purpose design."
"This mission will put the common bus design to the test," Ames Director S. Pete Worden, said. "This same common bus can be used on future missions to explore other destinations, including voyages to orbit and land on the moon, low-Earth orbit, and near-Earth objects."
Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at Ames, believes the new bus-design will allow spacecrafts to be mass produced, instead of painstakingly custom made.
"The LADEE mission demonstrates how it is possible to build a first class spacecraft at a reduced cost while using a more efficient manufacturing and assembly process," Hine said.
The commissioning phase of LADEE's mission will last for 40 days, 30 of which will be spent "high above the moon's surface." It will then begin the science phase.
Researchers hope the LADEE mission will answer the question: "Was lunar dust, electrically charged by sunlight, responsible for the pre-sunrise glow above the lunar horizon detected during several Apollo missions?"
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