The Lunar Prospector was a part of NASA’s Discovery Programme, a series of low cost space missions to explore the solar system. It was designed over 19 months in order to carry out a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon. Its objectives were to map the surface composition of the Moon including polar ice deposits, to measure magnetic and gravitational fields, and to study other lunar phenomena.
A detailed map of the surface composition of the Moon was made from the data obtained from the Lunar Prospector. After gathering necessary information about the presence of water ice in the poles, the Lunar Prospector was deliberately crashed into a crater near the lunar South Pole.
Picture Credit : Google