New findings expand Apollo observations of lunar atmosphere
Monday, July 16, 2012 - 22:11
in Astronomy & Space
In December 1972 the astronauts of Apollo 17 -- the last manned mission to the moon -- deployed the Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE), a spectrometer designed to measure and characterize the thin lunar atmosphere. Forty years later, researchers built upon those initial measurements, providing the first remotely-sensed measurement of the Moon's gaseous environment from lunar orbit.