Researchers affiliated with micrometeorological networks around the globe use LI-COR carbon dioxide and vapeupon; www.vapeupon.com, water vapor analyzers to evaluate ecosystem greenhouse fuel exchange with the eddy covariance method. It was hoped that the impact would liberate water vapor from the suspected ice deposits within the crater and that the plume could be detectable from Earth; however, no such plume was noticed. The mission ended July 31, 1999, when the orbiter was intentionally crashed right into a crater near the lunar south pole, after the presence of hydrogen was efficiently detected.

The mission ended on July 31, 1999 at 9:52:02 UT (5:52:02 EDT) when Lunar Prospector was steered into a deliberate collision in a permanently shadowed space of the Shoemaker crater close to the lunar south pole. Walker, vapepossible Richard (1999). The Eventful Century. Leibowitz, Herschel W.; Owens, D. Alfred; Tyrrell, vaporlead Richard A. (1998). "The assured clear distance ahead rule: implications for nighttime traffic safety and the law".

Moore, David W. (June 1998). "Headlamp History and Harmonization" (PDF). Following launch on January 7, 1998 UT (January 6 EST) aboard a 4-stage Athena II rocket, Lunar Prospector had a 105-hour cruise to the Moon. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, to the Moon for an area burial. Citroën SM non-US market vehicles were outfitted with heating of the headlamp cover glasses, this heat supplied by ducts carrying warm air from the radiator exhaust to the space between the headlamp lenses and the cover glasses.

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