An Ion Energy Analyzer for the Lunar Surface with E Parallel to B

Computer Science – Performance

Scientific paper

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[5494] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Instruments And Techniques, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon

Scientific paper

The surface of the moon is bombarded by ions from a variety of sources, including the solar wind, the Earth's magnetotail, and photoionized atoms from the lunar atmosphere. Surface-based ion detection is therefore one mechanism to study the composition of the thin lunar atmosphere. To date, the only instrument dedicated to the study of ions incident on the lunar surface was the Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment (SIDE), in which stepped mass/velocity analyzers were deployed at the Apollo 12, 14 and 15 sites. The SIDE instrument was a "filtered" design in which ions were passed through energy (6 steps) and velocity (20 steps) filters before reaching an ion sensor. An additional "total ion" detector provided 20 steps in energy (10eV-3500eV) but provided no mass information. The settings of the velocity and energy filters were scanned over time and ions which fell within the filter width at any one time were admitted to the sensor; the rest were discarded. A modern diagnostic used on fusion energy experiments is the E-parallel-B analyzer that uses a two-dimensional array of detectors. Incoming ions pass through an analysis region of parallel electric and magnetic fields; they are deflected along one axis by an amount corresponding to their charge-to-mass ratio and along the other by an amount corresponding to their momentum. Unlike the scanning instrument, the E-parallel-B analyzer is able to record the momentum and mass of each incident particle; a 2D sensor located at the end of the analysis region determines each particle's deflection in X and Y. No ions are discarded; additionally, unlike SIDE, the instrument can observe continuously and the resolution of the device is limited by its geometry rather than energy and velocity windows chosen to keep the scan time reasonable. The use of modern microchannel plate detectors backed by delay-line readouts results in a compact, low-mass instrument. We describe the E-parallel-B analyzer concept for the lunar surface along with the design and expected performance of such a device.

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