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

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

lunar missions.

History

Prospector arose as a result of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

'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 federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

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 centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

. Prospector was based on a study that had been performed by the

Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville postal address), is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government's ...

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 Payload (air and space craft), payloads.Terminology has changed since the 1960s; back then, 20,000 pounds was considered "heavy l ...

rocket. NASA envisioned Prospector as "a large versatile 'space truck'" that could be launched by a Saturn rocket 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 hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from Earth, the opposite hemisphere is the near side. It always has the same surface oriented away from Earth because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. C ...

* A system to obtain lunar samples 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 Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which the ...

, 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 The 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, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

. 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