LCROSS
E822842
LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) was a NASA impactor mission designed to search for water ice by crashing into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon’s south pole and analyzing the resulting debris plume.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| LCROSS canonical | 1 |
| LCROSS mission | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T9808340 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: LCROSS Context triple: [lunar south polar region, isTargetOfMission, LCROSS]
-
A.
Luna spacecraft
The Luna spacecraft were a series of Soviet robotic probes launched between the late 1950s and 1970s that achieved many lunar exploration firsts, including the first human-made object to reach the Moon and the first soft landing on its surface.
-
B.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA robotic spacecraft launched in 2009 to map the Moon’s surface in high detail and search for resources such as water ice.
-
C.
Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector was a NASA lunar orbiter mission that mapped the Moon’s surface composition and gravity field and provided strong evidence for the presence of water ice at the lunar poles.
-
D.
Moon Impact Probe
The Moon Impact Probe was a small Indian lunar probe designed to detach from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and intentionally crash onto the Moon’s surface to conduct scientific measurements and demonstrate landing technologies.
-
E.
Ranger spacecraft
The Ranger spacecraft is a fictional advanced space vehicle featured in the film "Interstellar," used for planetary exploration and piloted by astronaut Joseph Cooper.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: LCROSS Target entity description: LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) was a NASA impactor mission designed to search for water ice by crashing into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon’s south pole and analyzing the resulting debris plume.
-
A.
Luna spacecraft
The Luna spacecraft were a series of Soviet robotic probes launched between the late 1950s and 1970s that achieved many lunar exploration firsts, including the first human-made object to reach the Moon and the first soft landing on its surface.
-
B.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA robotic spacecraft launched in 2009 to map the Moon’s surface in high detail and search for resources such as water ice.
-
C.
Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector was a NASA lunar orbiter mission that mapped the Moon’s surface composition and gravity field and provided strong evidence for the presence of water ice at the lunar poles.
-
D.
Moon Impact Probe
The Moon Impact Probe was a small Indian lunar probe designed to detach from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and intentionally crash onto the Moon’s surface to conduct scientific measurements and demonstrate landing technologies.
-
E.
Ranger spacecraft
The Ranger spacecraft is a fictional advanced space vehicle featured in the film "Interstellar," used for planetary exploration and piloted by astronaut Joseph Cooper.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
NASA lunar impactor mission
ⓘ
lunar probe ⓘ spacecraft ⓘ |
| coLaunchedWith | Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ⓘ |
| confirmedDetection |
hydroxyl in lunar regolith
ⓘ
water in lunar regolith ⓘ |
| contributedTo | planning for future lunar exploration ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| dataUsers | lunar science community ⓘ |
| debrisPlumeObservedBy |
ground-based telescopes
ⓘ
space-based observatories ⓘ |
| fullName | Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite ⓘ |
| fundingAgency | NASA Science Mission Directorate ⓘ |
| impactAngle | near-vertical impact into Cabeus crater ⓘ |
| impactBody | Moon ⓘ |
| impactDate | 2009-10-09 ⓘ |
| impactLocation | Moon south pole region ⓘ |
| impactor | Centaur upper stage ⓘ |
| impactTarget | Cabeus crater ⓘ |
| impactVelocity | approximately 2.5 kilometers per second ⓘ |
| launchComplex | Space Launch Complex 41 ⓘ |
| launchDate | 2009-06-18 ⓘ |
| launchSite |
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
ⓘ
linked to:
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
|
| launchVehicle | Atlas V 401 ⓘ |
| massAtLaunch | approximately 891 kilograms ⓘ |
| missionEnd | 2009-10-09 ⓘ |
| missionPhase | Earth orbit phasing before lunar impact ⓘ |
| missionType |
lunar impactor
ⓘ
lunar water detection mission ⓘ |
| objective |
analyze debris plume from lunar impact
ⓘ
search for water ice on the Moon ⓘ |
| observationInstruments |
mid-infrared cameras
ⓘ
near-infrared spectrometers ⓘ visible cameras ⓘ |
| operator |
NASA
ⓘ
NASA Ames Research Center ⓘ
linked to:
Ames Research Center
|
| orbitTypeBeforeImpact | Earth orbit with lunar transfer trajectory ⓘ |
| program | Lunar Precursor Robotic Program ⓘ |
| projectManager |
NASA Ames Research Center
ⓘ
linked to:
Ames Research Center
|
| relatedMission | Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ⓘ |
| scienceResult | evidence of significant water ice in permanently shadowed lunar craters ⓘ |
| selectedImpactSiteReason | high hydrogen concentration detected by previous missions ⓘ |
| shepherdingSpacecraftRole | observe and relay data from impact plume ⓘ |
| spaceAgency | NASA ⓘ |
| spacecraftBus | EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA)-based bus ⓘ |
| status | mission completed ⓘ |
| targetEnvironment | permanently shadowed lunar crater ⓘ |
| uses | shepherding spacecraft and Centaur upper stage impactor ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: LCROSS Description of subject: LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) was a NASA impactor mission designed to search for water ice by crashing into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon’s south pole and analyzing the resulting debris plume.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: LCROSS