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A proposed lunar orbiting gravity gradiometer experiment.Analysis of the gravity gradiometer developed by Forward and Bell (1970) suggest that an accuracy, in the range 0.1 to 0.5 EU can be expected in a lunar orbiter application. This accuracy will allow gradient anomalies associated with mascons to be mapped with 1% accuracy and should reveal a great deal of new information about the lunar gravity field. The proposed experiment calls for putting such a gradiometer into a closely circular polar orbit at an average height of about 30 km above the lunar surface. This orbit allows the entire lunar surface to be covered in fourteen days, the gradiometer to be checked twice per revolution and results in successive passes above the lunar surface being spaced at about the resolution limit of about 30 km set both by the satellite altitude and instrumental integration time.
Document ID
19720046845
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Debra, D. B.
(Stanford University Stanford, Calif., United States)
Harrison, J. C.
(Colorado, University Boulder, Colo., United States)
Muller, P. M.
(California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena Calif., United States)
Date Acquired
August 6, 2013
Publication Date
April 1, 1972
Subject Category
Instrumentation And Photography
Accession Number
72A30511
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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