The Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometer

Details The Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometer The Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometer

Mar 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996lpi....27..355f&link_type=abstract

Lunar and Planetary Science, volume 27, page 355

Computer Science

3

Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, Lunar Prospector, Moon: Composition, Water: Lunar

Scientific paper

The third mission in the NASA Discovery series is Lunar Prospector. It is scheduled for launch on 9 October, 1997 into a circular, 100 km altitude lunar polar orbit. The nominal mission lifetime is one year. One of the five components of its experimental payload is a gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS), whose primary scientific objective is to provide global maps of the lunar elemental composition to depths of 20 cm. Scientifically discriminating results are expected for Fe, Ti, U, Th, K, Si, O, and perhaps Al, Ca, and Mg. In combination with a separate neutron spectrometer, also included on Lunar Prospector, a secondary objective of GRS is to search for, and determine the abundance of water ice to depths of 50 cm within permanently shaded craters at the lunar poles. Both experiments will also be used to search for, and determine the abundance of hydrogen implanted by the solar wind into lunar regolith to depths of 50 cm, thereby providing maps of regolith maturity. All Lunar Prospector experiments will be mounted at the ends of three, 1.9-m long booms that define the spin-plane of the satellite. The Lunar Prospector spin axis will be perpendicular to the lunar orbital plane and be flipped by 180deg half way through the mission.

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