Lunar Prospector
Prospector
is a NASA Discovery Mission. This new kind of mission places an emphasis on
science and "Faster, Better, Cheaper" mission
design and development. Lunar Prospector exemplifies these goals. It is a
small, spin-stabilized craft that uses flight-qualified, modern
technologies and instrumentation to ensure results and minimize risk. Like all Discovery missions, Prospector progressed rapidly
from development to completion and testing phases -- the entire process was
accomplished in a period of only 22 months. One of the features that speeded
the process along is the fact that, where feasible, the spacecraft was
manufactured from "off-the-shelf," flight-proven hardware.
The lunar prospector used a P5-403 Pinpuller to enable a mass spectrometer
once in Lunar Orbit.
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/project/index.htm
