On January 25, 1994 the USA Navy placed the Clementine satellite into orbit around the Earth. After completing its objectives in the Earth's orbit, the mission continued, with the contribution of NASA, into lunar orbit.

Clementine's objectives where multiple: on the one hand, the new technologies of the spacecraft had to be put into practice and on the other, scientific observations had to be attained. Both parts of the mission were successful.

The mission's main objective was to achieve a detailed mapping of the lunar surface. For this purpose the spacecraft was equipped with four cameras for observations in all wave lengths (ultraviolet, visible, infrared), as well as with an hypsometric laser, used to obtain altitude measurements.

During the 71 days in orbit, Clementine, by sending almost 1 million pictures, fully achieved its main object, mapping 38.000.000 km² of our satellite's surface.

Furthermore, the measurements that were attained ameliorated our knowledge about the inhomogeneous gravitational field of the Moon. At the same time they contributed in the research to characterize the solar and magnetospheric environment in the area of the lunar orbit.

In any case, the most interesting result, were the measurements that indicate the existence of water ice on the lunar poles and which triggered off the restart of lunar exploration after decades of stagnation. 
At this moment the data collected from Clementine, are used in order to analyze the texture of the crust and to explore the existence of ice on the south lunar pole. This data will be also used for the research and the future exploration of large plane areas of the moon (Mares) and generally for its surface morphology.