File:LRO spacecraft instrument LROC.jpg

English: LROC is one of seven instruments aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

LROC consists of two narrow-angle cameras (NACs) to provide 0.5 meter scale panchromatic images over a 5-km swath, a wide-angle camera (WAC) to provide images at a scale of 100 meter in seven color bands over a 60-km swath, and a Sequence and Compressor System (SCS) supporting data acquisition for both cameras. LROC is a modified version of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s ConTeXt Camera (CTX) and MARs Color Imager (MARCI) provided by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) in San Diego, Calif.

LROC is designed to address two of the prime LRO measurement requirements: (1) Assess meter scale features to facilitate selection of future landing sites on the moon, and (2) acquire images of the poles every orbit to characterize the polar illumination environment (100-meter scale), identifying regions of permanent shadow and permanent or near-permanent illumination throughout a full lunar

year. In addition to these two main objectives, the LROC team plans to conduct meter-scale mapping of polar regions, 3-dimensional observations to enable derivation of meter-scale surface features, global multispectral imaging, and production of a global landform map. LROC will also reimage sites photographed during Apollo to measure recent meteorite impact rates and better understand the potential hazard from these impacts.