Lunar and asteroid composition using a remote secondary ion mass spectrometer

Details Lunar and asteroid composition using a remote secondary ion mass spectrometer Lunar and asteroid composition using a remote secondary ion mass spectrometer

Dec 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992ntlr.workr..22e&link_type=abstract

In Lunar and Planetary Inst., Joint Workshop on New Technologies for Lunar Resource Assessment p 22-24 (SEE N93-17233 05-91)

Mathematics

Probability

Atmospheric Composition, Ionization, Lunar Composition, Lunar Surface, Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, Solar Wind, Sputtering, Electric Fields, Ions, Magnetic Fields, Protons, Surface Properties

Scientific paper

Laboratory experiments simulating solar wind sputtering of lunar surface materials have shown that solar wind protons sputter secondary ions in sufficient numbers to be measured from low-altitude lunar orbit. Secondary ions of Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Mn, Ti, and Fe have been observed sputtered from sample simulants of mare and highland soils. While solar wind ions are hundreds of times less efficient than those used in standard secondary ion mass spectrometry, secondary ion fluxes expected at the Moon under normal solar wind conditions range from approximately 10 to greater than 104 ions cm-2s-1, depending on species. These secondary ion fluxes depend both on concentration in the soil and on probability of ionization; yields of easily ionized elements such as K and Na are relatively much greater than those for the more electronegative elements and compounds. Once these ions leave the surface, they are subject to acceleration by local electric and magnetic fields. For typical solar wind conditions, secondary ions can be accelerated to an orbital observing location. The same is true for atmospheric atoms and molecules that are photoionized by solar EUV. The instrument to detect, identify, and map secondary ions sputtered from the lunar surface and photoions arising from the tenuous atmosphere is discussed.

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