When NASA Ames Research Center and Northrop Grumman won the right to build a low-cost pen-etrator for studying the Moon's surface composition, they worked on a tight schedule. They had just six months to build and test the instruments and a mission budget cap of $79 million. That's a pittance compared with many space programs. Yet with borrowed technology and adaptive techniques, the team's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite kept to its cost and deadline schedule. LCross is set for launch in April with the Lunar Reconnaissance Observer (LRO) mission. Ames Director Brig. Gen. (ret.) S. Pete Worden-who headed the Air Force Space Command's fast-paced Responsive Space Program and was part of its 1994 Clementine smallsat lunar mapping mission-helped Ames win LCross. He has his sights set on developing common low-cost platforms that can carry sensors for missions to the Moon, asteroids or elsewhere. When he became Ames's director in April 2006, Worden asked the center's satellite design team to develop a modular system called the Common Spacecraft Bus for orbiters or landers.
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机译：当美国国家航空航天局艾姆斯研究中心和诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司获得建造用于研究月球表面成分的低成本喷丸器的权利时，他们的工作日程很紧。他们只有六个月的时间来建造和测试这些仪器，任务预算上限为7900万美元。与许多太空计划相比，这是微不足道的。然而，借助借来的技术和自适应技术，该团队的“月球陨石坑观测和传感卫星”保持了其成本和截止日期时间表。 LCross将于4月与月球侦察观察员（LRO）任务一起发射。艾姆斯（Ames）导演。 S. Pete Worden上将（退休）是空军太空司令部快节奏的响应太空计划的负责人，也是其1994年Clementine smallsat月球制图任务的一部分，由Ames赢得LCross。他着眼于开发通用的低成本平台，该平台可以携带用于执行登月，小行星或其他任务的传感器。 2006年4月，Worden成为埃姆斯（Ames）的负责人时，他要求该中心的卫星设计团队为轨道器或着陆器开发一种称为通用航天飞机的模块化系统。
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