Douglas Isbell
Headquarters, Washington, DC                    November 25, 1997 
(Phone:  202/358-1753)

Elizabeth Carter
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 
(Phone:  650/604-2742)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N97-85

LUNAR PROSPECTOR MISSION BRIEFING SCHEDULED FOR DEC. 4

     A press briefing on the upcoming Lunar Prospector mission to the Moon and 
its scientific goals has been scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 4, 1997, at 1 p.m. 
EST in the NASA Headquarters auditorium, 300 E St., SW, Washington, DC.  The 
briefing will last approximately one hour and will be broadcast live on NASA 
Television.  

     The third flight in NASA's Discovery Program of lower-cost, highly focused 
Solar System exploration missions, Lunar Prospector is scheduled for launch at 
8:32 p.m. EST on Jan. 5, 1998, from Spaceport Florida's new Launch Complex 46 in 
Cape Canaveral, FL.  
The small robotic mission is designed to provide the first global maps of the 
Moon's elemental surface composition and its gravitational and magnetic fields. 

     Participants in the press briefing are scheduled to include:
  
*     Dr. Carl B. Pilcher, acting solar system exploration director, Office of 
Space Science, NASA Headquarters, who will speak on the purpose and goals of the 
Discovery Program;

*     Mr. G. Scott Hubbard, Lunar Prospector mission manager from NASA's Ames 
Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, who will describe the development of Lunar 
Prospector and its mission operations;

*     Dr. Alan Binder, principal investigator for Lunar Prospector and head of 
the Lunar Research Institute, Gilroy, CA, who will discuss the mission's five 
science instruments and their related research goals, and

*     Dr. Michael Drake, director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, 
University of Arizona, Tucson, who will give an overview of current scientific 
understanding of the Earth-Moon system and provide insights into the value of 
Lunar Prospector data for the study of the origin and evolution of the Solar 
System.

     The briefing will include a short demonstration of the new Lunar Prospector 
web site on the Internet, which will enable the public to view user-friendly 
visualizations of science data transmissions from the spacecraft at the same 
time they are first seen by mission scientists.

     The Web site is located at the following URL:  

               http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/

     NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees West 
longitude, with vertical polarization.  Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz, with 
audio on 6.8 megahertz.  Reporters who wish to observe and participate in the 
live broadcast of the press conference remotely may do so at participating NASA 
field centers.

                          -end-