Lunar Prospector, a NASA Discovery Mission, was launched January 6, 1998. After a 5-day journey to the Moon, it used on-board rocket thrusters to establish itself in a nearly circular, north-south polar orbit about 100 km above the lunar surface. From this vantage it mapped the entire lunar surface, which drifted by as the Moon rotates below Prospector's orbit.

Our Lunar Prospector kit represents NASA's lunar orbiter which discovered water at the lunar poles. It mapped the whole Moon's mineral composition and gravity field, then made a controlled dive into an icy polar crater to end its mission on 7/31/99. The advanced design model kit has lots of details in gold and silver metal foil, and color lithography.

All directions for assembly are available online for your use, and to print out if you prefer. Instructions are provided for assembling the kit in its lunar mapping configuration, or in its launch configuration. Click here for assembly instructions to all our spacecraft kits, as well as fact summaries about their missions and suggestions for enhancing their presentation.

Recommended for children over 12 years of age, or with the help of an adult. The kit is made from laser-cut, heavyweight card stock. It requires some finely detailed assembly. The assembled model is about 1/25 scale, measuring 12 inches (30 cm) overall.

Made in California, USA.

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