Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005agufm.p31c0218e&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2005, abstract #P31C-0218
Other
0394 Instruments And Techniques, 1823 Frozen Ground, 5462 Polar Regions, 6225 Mars
Scientific paper
The Construction Resource Utilization eXplorer (CRUX) is a technology maturation project for NASA's Exploration Division aimed at providing enabling technology for lunar and planetary surface operations (LPSO). The CRUX will have 10 instruments, a data handling function, and a decision support system (DSS) to provide information needed to plan and conduct surface operations. Here we discuss two instruments of the suite that are specifically aimed at detecting and assessing deposits such as water ice or other hydrogenous volatiles. The Surface Neutron Probe (SNeuP) identifies promising sites for recovery of volatile hydrogen-bearing deposits. Mounted on a rover, SNeuP provides a record of average hydrogen abundance with position and time during a traverse. The entire instrument weighs 480 g, and consumes 1.8 W. The Borehole Neutron Probe (BNeuP) identifies hydrogenous layers, including those bearing water ice, as a function of depth down a borehole. BNeuP weighs 517 g, and consumes <2 W. Both instruments sense the presence of hydrogenous materials by measuring variations in the thermal and epithermal neutron fluxes using helium-3 gas proportional counter tubes. We have carried out tests of the SNeuP instrument, and have demonstrated its ability to detect and locate near-surface hydrogen-bearing deposits. We have also tested BNeuP in a drilling configuration and have demonstrated its ability to locate and quantify the water-equivalent hydrogen content of layered deposits. SNeuP thus helps locate promising sites for drilling and sample recovery, while BNeuP's stratigraphic record of hydrogen with depth is key to successful volatile sample recovery and interpretation of other instruments' data.
Chu Ping
Elphic Richard C.
Feldman William C.
Hahn Stephen
Johnson Jeffrey B.
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