Physics – Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Jun 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aipc.1144..109k&link_type=abstract
FUTURE PERSPECTIVES OF SPACE PLASMA AND PARTICLE INSTRUMENTATION AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS: Proceedings of the Internatio
Physics
Plasma Physics
Extrasolar Planetary Systems, Spectrometers And Spectroscopic Techniques, Space Plasma Physics
Scientific paper
Low-energy neutral atom (LENA) observations bring us important information on particle environments around planetary objects such as Mercury and the Moon. In this paper, we report on a new development of a LENA instrument of light weight (~2 kg) for planetary explorations. The instrument is capable of energy and mass discrimination with a large sensitivity by utilizing surface ionization followed by an electrostatic analyzer and a time-of-flight velocity spectrometer. The performance of the instrument is investigated by numerical simulations. This enables us to obtain detailed performance characterization of LENA measurements by the instrument. We also made trajectory tracing of photons entering the instrument to examine photon rejection capability. The simulations show that the energy range is from ~10 eV to >3.3 keV and the angular resolutions are 10 deg×25 deg for 25-eV LENAs, which are sufficient for planetary LENA observations. Laboratory tests of a prototype model of the instruments developed with this study are now ongoing. According to the initial tests, the measurement principle of the instrument has been verified. This LENA instrument has been selected for both the Indian Moon exploration mission Chandrayaan-1 and the European-Japanese Mercury exploration mission BepiColombo.
Asamura Kazushi
Barabash Stas
Kazama Yoichi
Wieser Martin
Wurz Peter
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