Prospector was a proposed lunar probe that was intended to be flown in support of the

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

lunar missions.

History

Prospector arose as a result of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

's desire to rehabilitate the tarnished image of US spaceflight. In 1961,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

proposed a series of robotic probes, including Prospector, to be managed by the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

. Prospector was based on a study that had been performed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in June 1960, to determine what lunar missions could be achieved using the

Saturn I The Saturn I was a rocket designed as the United States' first medium lift launch vehicle for up to low Earth orbit payloads.Terminology has changed since the 1960s; back then, 20,000 pounds was considered "heavy lift". The rocket's first sta ...

rocket. NASA envisioned Prospector as "a large versatile 'space truck'" that could be launched by a

Saturn rocket The Saturn family of American rockets was developed by a team of mostly German rocket engineers and scientists led by Wernher von Braun to launch heavy payloads to Earth orbit and beyond. The Saturn family used liquid hydrogen as fuel in the u ...

and that could soft-land on the Moon with a wide variety of payloads. Among the applications envisioned were: * A remote-controlled lunar rover that could explore large areas of the lunar surface, including the

far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth, opposite to the near side, because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. Compared to the near side, the far side's terrain is rugged, with a multitu ...

* A system to obtain

lunar sample Moon rock or lunar rock is rock originating from Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth as ...

s and return them to Earth * A low-altitude survey of the lunar surface for reconnaissance, and to help select landing sites for subsequent Apollo missions, using large propellant tanks to allow the spacecraft to hover and laterally move over the lunar surface * An uncrewed

cargo spacecraft Cargo spacecraft are robotic spacecraft that are designed to carry cargo, possibly to support space stations' operation by transporting food, propellant and other supplies. This is different from a space probe, whose missions are to conduct sci ...

, providing supplies and materials to lunar astronauts Prospector was initially planned to have its first launch between 1963 and 1966. However, as plans progressed, the project ran into weight overruns, requiring a larger launcher such as the

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with three stages, and powered with liquid fuel. It was flown from 196 ...

. Its role also began to change from one of support for the Apollo missions to more of a substitute for them, which NASA's

Space Task Group The Space Task Group was a working group of NASA engineers created in 1958, tasked with managing America's human spaceflight programs. Headed by Robert Gilruth and based at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, it managed Project Me ...

did not endorse. Volume 1, Part 2(c), citing Memorandum, H. Kurt Strass, Apollo Project Office, to Associate Director, STG, ''Conference at NASA Headquarters Concerning Relationship Between the Prospector and Apollo Programs, April 20, 1961,'' May 1, 1961. The project was canceled in 1962.

References

External links

''Prospector''
at the ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'' NASA programs Cancelled NASA space probes Cancelled space probes Missions to the Moon {{US-spacecraft-stub

History

See also

References

External links