Plasma and Field Measurements by the Lunar Dust Transport Package

Details Plasma and Field Measurements by the Lunar Dust Transport Package Plasma and Field Measurements by the Lunar Dust Transport Package

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p23c1259r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P23C-1259

Physics

Plasma Physics

[0694] Electromagnetics / Instruments And Techniques, [6250] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Moon, [7831] Space Plasma Physics / Laboratory Studies And Experimental Techniques

Scientific paper

The Lunar Dust Transport Package (LDTP) is designed to investigate dusty plasma processes on the lunar surface. LDTP combines in situ and remote sensing observations (1) to address the temporal variation and the size distributions of the levitated/transported dust grains, and (2) to characterize the surface plasma environment. This package includes cameras, plasma and electric field booms, and instrumentation to measure the size, speed and the charge of the mobilized dust grains. We describe the subset of instruments for plasma and electric field measurements near the lunar surface, using autonomously deployed boom antennas. Each of the booms has independent spherical charge collectors separated by ~ 1 m that can operate either as voltage-swept Langmuir probes (for plasma density measurement) or as high-impedance voltage sensors (for electric field measurement). A relay inside of the probe switches the measurement modes. By rotating the horizontal booms from near horizontal toward the vertical, the plasma density and temperature are determined as a function of distance above the surface. We expect that vertical electric fields can be determined to ~ 1 mV/m accuracy and the electron density to ~10 % accuracy. We describe the plasma and field measurements subsystem of LDTP, including its current mechanical and electrical design, and the lunar plasma environment simulation chamber in which the subsystem will be validated.

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