[amsat-bb] ILN... Is this our future ride to the moon?

[Armando Mercado]

Greetings,

The International Lunar Network appears
to be the unmanned landers NASA is planning
to put on the moon.  The program is working to
put 2 landers on the moon in the 2012-2014
time frame.

Here are some excerpts from a Request for
Information by NASA regarding instruments
for its International Lunar Network (ILN).
Pay special note to the mass and power
limits.

Is this what we are talking about putting a
transponder on?

73, Armando, N8IGJ

******

Date Released: Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Source: Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA Solicitation: Instruments for U.S. International
Lunar Network (ILN) Lunar Missions


Description of Anticipated Requirement

NASA expects to emplace the first two nodes (the "anchor"
nodes) of the ILN in the 2012-2014 timeframe with two
additional nodes to be emplaced roughly two years later,
depending on funds availability. All nodes will carry
identical core instrument payloads. The ILN mission requires
long lived instruments which can be operated as a network
for six years (the anchor nodes will necessarily have to last
longer). It is anticipated that a very small amount of power
will be available to enable continuous operation through
the lunar night.

Concept studies for the spacecraft are now under development
at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center working with the
Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) of The Johns Hopkins
University. The mission will be tightly constrained in both
mass and power. It is expected that the total available mass
for all payload instruments will be approximately 15 kg,
although the precise mass available for the payload will
depend on the launch vehicle and other trades still being
considered. The total available payload power will be
approximately 15 W.

The total budget for the ILN anchor nodes including
development and operations is $200M. Schedule and budget
constraints require that NASA mission planners focus on
relatively mature instruments.

******

See the following links for more info:

http://www.moontoday.net/news/viewsr.html?pid=29834  (The full Request for 
Information)

http://iln.arc.nasa.gov/welcome  (General info on ILN)


http://lunarscience.arc.nasa.gov/file_download/26/ILN+Final+Report.pdf 
(Detailed info
on ILN... Note: large file 13MB)

Happy reading,

Armando, N8IGJ