Planetary Science

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Orbiter · Directed · Agency-led · Launched on June 18, 2009 · Extended Mission · LCC: $516M/$806M (2025 $)Life-cycle cost: NASA’s reported cost to build, launch, and operate a mission through its prime mission, plus documented partner contributions, in 2025 dollars. Extended missions are not included. Methods · Wikipedia

Scope Active Mission WindowActivePapers published from the first full month after science operations begin through two years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. For LRO, papers published October 1, 2009 to January 1, 2024. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For LRO, papers published from 2010 to November 3, 2026. Methods
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed papers we found that name the mission or its instruments in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. Papers that used the data without naming it are missed. Methods1,016
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods29,816
Citation indices
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods83
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods135
m-indexm-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes; the figure shown is as of November 3, 2026. It also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods4.9
toritori (total research impact, from SciX): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Always over every tracked publication to date, whichever scope is chosen. Methods160
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Like tori, always over every tracked publication to date. Methods703

Publications and citations by year (lifetime)

Publications per yearCumulative citations

Institutional contributions (lifetime)The institutions SciX lists for each paper’s authors, as printed on the paper, located through the Research Organization Registry. A square counts a paper once, however many of its authors worked there. Methods

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Tracked publications over the lifetime (1,016)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Instrument Overview

    Robinson, M. S., 2010, SSRv

    1,071 lifetime citations

  2. The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter Investigation on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission

    Smith, David E., 2010, SSRv

    489 lifetime citations

  3. A new lunar digital elevation model from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter and SELENE Terrain Camera

    Barker, M. K., 2016, Icar

    488 lifetime citations

  4. Diviner Lunar Radiometer Observations of Cold Traps in the Moon’s South Polar Region

    Paige, David A., 2010, Sci

    474 lifetime citations

  5. Initial observations from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA)

    Smith, David E., 2010, GeoRL

    452 lifetime citations

  6. Direct evidence of surface exposed water ice in the lunar polar regions

    Li, Shuai, 2018, PNAS

    436 lifetime citations

  7. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment

    Paige, D. A., 2010, SSRv

    426 lifetime citations

  8. The global surface temperatures of the Moon as measured by the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment

    Williams, J.-P., 2017, Icar

    381 lifetime citations

  9. Global Regolith Thermophysical Properties of the Moon From the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment

    Hayne, Paul O., 2017, JGRE

    336 lifetime citations

  10. Illumination conditions of the lunar polar regions using LOLA topography

    Mazarico, E., 2011, Icar

    326 lifetime citations

  11. Hydrogen Mapping of the Lunar South Pole Using the LRO Neutron Detector Experiment LEND

    Mitrofanov, I. G., 2010, Sci

    312 lifetime citations

  12. Lunar surface rock abundance and regolith fines temperatures derived from LRO Diviner Radiometer data

    Bandfield, Joshua L., 2011, JGRE

    299 lifetime citations

  13. Evidence for exposed water ice in the Moon's south polar regions from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ultraviolet albedo and temperature measurements

    Hayne, Paul O., 2015, Icar

    269 lifetime citations

  14. Optical measurements of the Moon as a tool to study its surface

    Shkuratov, Y., 2011, P&SS

    264 lifetime citations

  15. Lunar equatorial surface temperatures and regolith properties from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment

    Vasavada, Ashwin R., 2012, JGRE

    226 lifetime citations

  16. Global Silicate Mineralogy of the Moon from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer

    Greenhagen, Benjamin T., 2010, Sci

    221 lifetime citations

  17. Lunar mare TiO₂ abundances estimated from UV/Vis reflectance

    Sato, Hiroyuki, 2017, Icar

    219 lifetime citations

  18. Highly Silicic Compositions on the Moon

    Glotch, Timothy D., 2010, Sci

    210 lifetime citations

  19. GLD100: The near-global lunar 100 m raster DTM from LROC WAC stereo image data

    Scholten, F., 2012, JGRE

    187 lifetime citations

  20. Evidence for basaltic volcanism on the Moon within the past 100 million years

    Braden, S. E., 2014, NatGe

    180 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming LRO in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.

((=abs:"Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter" OR =abs:"Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera" OR =abs:"Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector" OR =abs:"Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project" OR =abs:"Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter" OR =abs:"Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation" OR =abs:"Diviner Lunar Radiometer" OR ((=abs:Moon OR =abs:lunar) AND (abs:LRO OR =abs:LROC OR abs:LEND OR abs:LAMP OR abs:LOLA OR abs:CRaTER OR =abs:Diviner OR abs:"Mini-RF")))) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2009-10 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "ACPD" OR "AIASJ" OR "AMTD" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "BGD" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "CliPD" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "ESDD" OR "ESSDD" OR "ESuDD" OR "GID" OR "GMDD" OR "GeCAS" OR "HESSD" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NHESD" OR "NPGD" OR "NewSc" OR "OcScD" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SOILD" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "TCD" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Removed after review (14)

  1. The Ultraviolet Spectrograph on NASA's Juno Mission Describes Juno's ultraviolet spectrograph; mentions LRO only as design heritage. Decision 🤖
  2. The ARTEMIS Mission Overview of the ARTEMIS mission; mentions LRO only as a concurrent mission. Decision 🤖
  3. Dose spectra from energetic particles and neutrons Describes a proposed dosimeter; mentions CRaTER only as a design analogue. Decision 🤖
  4. Promising Neutron Detector with Anticoincidence Protection Describes a proposed neutron detector design; reports no LRO results. Decision 🤖
  5. Preface: The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Editorial preface to a journal special issue; not a research paper. Decision 🤖
  6. When Earth got pummeled News commentary on another paper; not a research paper. Decision 🤖
  7. Introduction to special section on Results of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Editorial introduction to a journal special section; not a research paper. Decision 🤖
  8. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Payload Development and Performance in Flight Describes the LCROSS instrument payload; mentions LRO only as a co-launched mission. Decision 🤖
  9. ShadowCam Instrument and Investigation Overview Instrument overview of ShadowCam (KPLO); mentions LROC only as a comparison. Decision 🤖
  10. Chandrayaan-2 dual-frequency SAR: Further investigation into lunar water and regolith Pre-launch description of the Chandrayaan-2 radar; mentions Mini-RF only as context. Decision 🤖
  11. The First Laser Retroreflector on the Lunar Far Side Onboard China's Chang'e-6 Lander Describes the Chang'e-6 laser retroreflector; mentions LOLA only as a possible future observer. Decision 🤖
  12. Characterization of Regolith And Trace Economic Resources (CRATER): An Orbitrap-based laser desorption mass spectrometry instrument for in situ exploration of the Moon Describes an unrelated instrument named CRATER; not LRO's CRaTER. Decision 🤖
  13. An Overview of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Overview of the LCROSS mission; mentions LRO only as its launch companion. Decision 🤖
  14. A compact, low-power epithermal neutron counter for lunar water detection Describes a neutron detector for future lunar rovers; names LRO only as earlier work. Decision 🤖