NOVA; To the Moon; Interview with Alan Binder, Principal Investigator of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission, part 1 of 4

Okay, if it's not that state kindly, okay, keep it that way, I'll give it you that. Hey Troy, could you close that door too? Both of you guys get on the mic so we can hear. Copy that. Thank you. Command in, B00, okay, there's the execute.

Okay, we have 3.6 kilobits, downlink, mag, side B is on, all right, you're on knee as the last command, I mean medium gain, so last command, yeah. See, it's got much quicker on if you don't have all these silly instruments on the spacecraft to turn on, the whole purpose, flying out of two control platform, two, three, two, three,

okay, the high voltage is a kill, okay, then let's proceed. Rick, do you have the heater file prepared? That's affirmative, okay, can we verify, please, okay, T1 heater, 32-second delay, execute, T2 and execute, all right, let's move to over, all right, let's, three, two, three,

one, execute, please, Mark, first command, copy, okay, I have echo of 2e, 0, 0, 2a, VCID of 0, 6, both are correct, for the T1 heater command, waiting execution. Okay, T2 has responded, and you have the file transferred, that is correct, okay, can we verify?

Okay, ready for feedback of TNV246, okay, you have a delay son of 0.0, correct, 32-second delays, correct, short term of 3, 4, 7, 9, 0, 0, 0, VCID of 0, 6, is that correct, then? That is correct, thank you, I have echo of short term, okay, I have half rev, echo of 3, 3, 0, 0, 0, VCID of 0, 6, is that correct, then? That is correct, thank you, one VCID of 0, 6, is that correct, then? That is correct, thank you, okay, I am awaiting the engine selection of T1, 2V,

okay, both engines are heating up nicely, okay, I have engine selection of 3, B, 0, 0, 4, E, VCID of 0, 6, which is correct for the T1, 2V, burn, then you agreement with the entire load? Yes, I can go with the load. Okay, let's review the abort criteria, first of all, we have a stopfire abort, followed by a pillar. Stopfire 32-second delays, set command range, and then an exec, okay, Roger, first command is an execute, followed by 36-second delay, stopfire 32-second delay, set command range, and execute, okay, everything is correct, okay, then let's execute in, okay, 20 seconds,

Troy would you tell me when the stopfire goes out since I will be busy watching the temperature drop, Roger, 20 seconds, can you delay that, I am going to need to reform at that command since we changed the delay, okay, how long do you need to return around time? Okay, I'll assume that we are going to fire in one minute, you need more time, let me know, Roger, 20, command is ready, thank you. Ten, five, three, one, and execute, please, Roger, Mark, command, copy, okay, I have

echoed execute, I have two hot engines, I have a dynamic pressure drop, thank you, okay, engine temperature is roughly 800 on both engines, okay, I've got load current increase, 12.1 RPM, copy, okay, I have set register, mutation is negligible, copy, okay, I'm waiting execution, okay, going off, the mic, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, the mic, okay, like that, all right, now let's not kill this thing at the, and we'll

just start from the time, 20 seconds, ten, ten, five, three, one, and execute, please, thank you, Mark, command, copy, okay, I have echo of two, E, zero, zero, two, A, VCID of zero, six, both are correct for the T1 heater,

a waiting execution, okay, I have echo of execution, on time, awaiting the T2 heater command, F, zero, zero, two, C, BCID of zero, six, both are correct for the T2 heater, waiting execution, okay, I have echo of execution of the second heater command, I have a load current increase indicating they're both on, I have a positive response

from T2 heater, okay, Dan, are you ready to transfer the command file, and can we proceed with the verification, okay, okay, I have a delay, zero point zero, correct, 32 second delay, correct, shorter, three, four, point, seven, nine, seven, zero, correct, half-freve of zero point zero, correct, delay, num, zero point zero, and one pulse, correct, T1, two, back, correct, and the execution file, please, Roger, okay, I have an exact, followed by 36 second delay, correct, stop fire, correct, 32 second delay, correct, set command rate, two, F, four, A, B, BCID of zero, six, is that correct, Dan, that's correct, thank

you, we have half-freve echo of three, three, we're waiting delay num, okay, both engines are sufficiently hot that we can proceed, I have delay num of three zero, zero, zero, one, with a BCID of zero, six, are they correct, Dan, that's correct, okay, I'm waiting the engine selection of the T1, two, back mode, 10, 5, 3, 1, and execute, please,

Mark, first command, copy, okay, I have echo of execute, I have a increase in the load current, both engines are heated to 800, I have a dynamic pressure drop, temperatures are over 900 reaching equilibrium, copy that, okay, we've leveled off at about 930, okay, I have a drop in the load current, num time is zero, I'll set, okay, let's have a mic

check, everyone, Dan, are you on, Rick, are you on, okay, I'd like to verify the first file, please, 10, 5, 3, 1, and execute, please, Mark, first command, copy, okay, I have echo of 2e, zero, zero, 2a, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, let's do it, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, we've got the

Action. Go ahead. Okay. I have echo of set command register of 0 1 0 0 0 0 VCID of 0 6. And I have echo of execution. The registers are clearing. We've saved the spacecraft. That's the end of the burn. Good job, everyone. I'm signing off. Okay. Now I'm going to sit in. Okay. I have set command register echo of 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 with the VCID of 0 6. Waiting

execution. I have execution. The registers are clearing. Okay. We've saved the spacecraft. That's the end of the burn. Good job, everyone. I'm going offline. Okay. Okay. We're done in there. I mean, I'm done. Whatever you want to do now. So the spacecraft's

happy. You guys are happy. It's everybody's happy. All right. Thank you. Maybe I will ask you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.