Alliant Techsystems is celebrating the news that NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) has reached lunar orbit aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and is now operational.

ATK's Pasadena, California, office played a crucial role in the technical effort of the program. ATK's contribution included the design, analysis and fabrication of compact, lightweight structures capable of surviving the rigors of spaceflight while meeting exacting science requirements. An important element in the success to date of M3 was the engineering team's ability to derive, achieve, and maintain the critical optical alignments necessary for this state-of-the-art hyperspectral imager to attain performance beyond that of previous similar instruments. In addition, the multi-discipline engineering capabilities of ATK were used on nearly every aspect of the M3 design. From mechanical and electronics CAD design to optical, structural, and thermal analysis, ATK's technical team worked closely with their counterparts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to rapidly respond to spacecraft changes as they developed.

Chandrayaan-1 is India's ambitious first mission beyond Earth's orbit, carrying a payload of 11 science instruments, including two from the U.S. Over the planned two-years orbiting the moon, M3 promises to provide valuable data to improve scientists' knowledge of the geology of the Earth-Moon system, properties of lunar materials, and the science and technology of lunar resources. Led for NASA by principal investigator Carle Pieters of Brown University, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

(Image, courtesy of NASA)