NASA Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite spacecraft confirms the presence water on moonNovember 19, 2009 -- OPCO Laboratory: As part of OPCO’s strategic business plan to provide custom optics for the space and aerospace industries, OPCO is proud to have played an important and vital role in the confirmation of water‐ice on the moon. OPCO Laboratory manufactured the custom mirrors and diffraction grating, designed by Dr. David Landis, President of Aurora Design & Technology, and the only private sector member of the LCROSS Science Team, that were used in the scientific instrumentation Ultraviolet‐Visible Spectrometer in the Centaur spacecraft. The instrumentation monitored the debris plume created by the Centaur’s upper stage, as it impacted the Cabeus crater near the lunar south pole of the moon, and identified ionized water, OH radicals, and carbon molecules contained in the plume. OPCO also manufactured the optics for the telescopes used to feed reflected and scattered sunlight into the spectrometer, allowing for the detailed spectral analysis of material in the plume.
Back
