Lunar Prospector Status Report #44

August14, 1998 - 1:00 p.m. EST (10:00 a.m. PST)

The Lunar Prospector spacecraft continues to perform very well. There has been very little commanding activity during the past two weeks.

Yesterday, 10 commands were sent to examine the status of the Alpha Particle Spectrometer Instrument. Noise has been seen in 2 of the 5 faces of the instrument and these faces have been turned off for the last few months to prevent total saturation of the instrument. Results of the test yesterday showed no change in the status. These two faces were commanded off again and the instrument continues to get good date from the remaining 3 faces.

Last Firday evening, the moon saw a partial eclipse of the sun by the earth. It was a very shallow eclipse, ans as expected, there was no effect seen on the spacecraft in either the thermal or the power subsyatems.

Current spacecraft state (0000 GMT 8/14/98):

Orbit: 2606
Downlink: 3600 bps
Spin Rate: 12.01 rpm

Spin Axis Attitude (ecliptic):
Latitude: 89.4deg
Longitude: 189 deg

Trajectory:
Periapsis Alt: 90.7 km
Apoapsis Alt: 109.9 km

Inclination: 90.0 deg
Period: 118 min
Occultations: 45 minutes
Eclipses: 37 minutes