Instrumentation for Nuclear Planetology: Present and Future

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxim Mokrousov ◽  
Igor Mitrofanov ◽  
Alexander Kozyrev ◽  
Maxim Litvak ◽  
Alexey Malakhov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Neutron Generator ◽  
Galactic Cosmic Rays ◽  
Field Of View ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Small Bodies ◽  
Nuclear Composition ◽  
Subsurface Layers ◽  
Pros And Cons

<p>The method of remote neutron and gamma spectrometry of bodies in the solar system (the Moon, Mars, and Mercury) has been used for several decades to estimate the nuclear composition of these objects and the hydrogen abundance in their subsurface layers. It is known that many solid planets of Solar system with thin atmospheres, its moons, small bodies and even comets due to bombardment by heavy nucleus of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GRS) produce neutron albedo and characteristic gamma lines. Detection of escaping gammas and neutrons (remote sensing from an orbit or in situ) bringing an information about elemental composition of the subsurface and hydrogen-containing elements (as deep as tens of centimeters). Currently we can classify all nuclear planetology instruments by the field of view (uncollimated and collimated) and by type of soil irradiation (passive – using GRS, and active – using pulsing neutron generator onboard), each of those methods has pros and cons and all of them will be presented. Also, future nuclear planetology instruments and method in design will be presented.</p>

scholarly journals Lunar exploration: opening a window into the history and evolution of the inner Solar System

2014 ◽  
Vol 372 (2024) ◽  
pp. 20130315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian A. Crawford ◽  
Katherine H. Joy
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Lunar Exploration ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Moon System ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Geological Evolution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rocky Planets

The lunar geological record contains a rich archive of the history of the inner Solar System, including information relevant to understanding the origin and evolution of the Earth–Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and our local cosmic environment. This paper provides a brief review of lunar exploration to-date and describes how future exploration initiatives will further advance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon, the Earth–Moon system and of the Solar System more generally. It is concluded that further advances will require the placing of new scientific instruments on, and the return of additional samples from, the lunar surface. Some of these scientific objectives can be achieved robotically, for example by in situ geochemical and geophysical measurements and through carefully targeted sample return missions. However, in the longer term, we argue that lunar science would greatly benefit from renewed human operations on the surface of the Moon, such as would be facilitated by implementing the recently proposed Global Exploration Roadmap.

Satellites and Pluto

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuk L. Yung ◽  
William B. DeMore
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Small Bodies ◽  
Planetary Body ◽  
Galilean Moons ◽  
Satellites Of Jupiter ◽  
Tidal Heating ◽  
Pioneer 10 ◽  
Active Volcanoes

The presence of an atmosphere on a small planetary body the size of the Moon is surprising. Loss of material by escape would have depleted the atmosphere over the age of the solar system. Since these objects are not large enough to possess, or to sustain for long, a molten core, continued outgassing from the interior is not expected. However, it is now known that four small bodies in the outer solar system possess substantial atmospheres: lo, Titan, Triton, and Pluto. These atmospheres range from the very tenuous on lo (of the order of a nanobar) to the very massive on Titan (of the order of a bar). The atmospheric pressures on Triton and Pluto are of the order of 10 μbar. Perhaps the most interesting questions about these atmospheres concern their unusual origin and their chemical evolution. lo is the innermost of the four Galilean satellites of Jupiter, the other three being Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto. All the Galilean moons are comparable in size, but there is no appreciable atmosphere on the other moons. The first indications that lo possesses an atmosphere came in 1974 with the discovery of sodium atoms surrounding the satellite and the detection of a well-developed ionosphere from the Pioneer 10 radio occultation experiment. The Voyager encounter in 1979 established the existence of active volcanoes as well as SOa gas. These are the only extraterrestrial active volcanoes discovered to date, and they owe their existence to a curious tidal heating mechanism associated with the 2:1 resonance between the orbits of lo and Europa.

scholarly journals The lunar surface as a recorder of astrophysical processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 379 (2188) ◽  
pp. 20190562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian A. Crawford ◽  
Katherine H. Joy ◽  
Jan H. Pasckert ◽  
Harald Hiesinger
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Lunar Surface ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Galactic Cosmic Rays ◽  
Space Environment ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Solar Particle Events ◽  
The Past ◽  
Geological Processes ◽  
Wide Range

The lunar surface has been exposed to the space environment for billions of years and during this time has accumulated records of a wide range of astrophysical phenomena. These include solar wind particles and the cosmogenic products of solar particle events which preserve a record of the past evolution of the Sun, and cosmogenic nuclides produced by high-energy galactic cosmic rays which potentially record the galactic environment of the Solar System through time. The lunar surface may also have accreted material from the local interstellar medium, including supernova ejecta and material from interstellar clouds encountered by the Solar System in the past. Owing to the Moon's relatively low level of geological activity, absence of an atmosphere, and, for much of its history, lack of a magnetic field, the lunar surface is ideally suited to collect these astronomical records. Moreover, the Moon exhibits geological processes able to bury and thus both preserve and ‘time-stamp' these records, although gaining access to them is likely to require a significant scientific infrastructure on the lunar surface. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades'.

scholarly journals Exploration in the Solar System with Electric Spacecraft

1971 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 489-501
Author(s):  
Ernst Stuhlinger
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Radiation Belts ◽  
Surface Material ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Surface Samples ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
Unmanned Spacecraft ◽  
Age Determinations

The landings of instrumented probes and astronauts on the Moon and the short glimpses at Venus and Mars that distinguished the spaceflight program of the last decade yielded such an impressive wealth of new knowledge that the President, in his programmatic speech of 1970, mentioned the continuing exploration of the solar system as one of the national goals during the decade of the seventies.This exploration will be accomplished with unmanned spacecraft, except for the remaining three Apollo flights in 1971 and 1972 and Skylab in 1973. Planetary exploration will include photographic coverage of the surfaces of the celestial bodies; closeup pictures of specific surface features; magnetic and gravitational measurements; observations of atmospheres, ionospheres, and radiation belts; analysis of surface material in situ; and, as far as possible, the return of surface samples for careful chemical and mineralogical analyses and for age determinations.

Bakerian Lecture - The origin of the solar system

1952 ◽  
Vol 214 (1118) ◽  
pp. 281-291 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Small Bodies ◽  
Surface Features ◽  
Planets And Satellites ◽  
Origin Of The Moon

Some of the principal theories of the origin of the planets and satellites are discussed. The principal topics are the nebular theory (Roche’s form), tidal theories, collision theories; disk theories; densities of the planets; fission theories of the origin of the moon; origin of small bodies; initial temperatures; constitutions of the planets; the moon’s surface features.

scholarly journals Rosetta CONSERT Data as a Testbed for In Situ Navigation of Space Probes and Radiosciences in Orbit/Escort Phases for Small Bodies of the Solar System

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 3747
Author(s):  
Mao Ye ◽  
Fei Li ◽  
Jianguo Yan ◽  
Alain Hérique ◽  
Wlodek Kofman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Autonomous Navigation ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Observation Time ◽  
Small Bodies ◽  
Tracking Station ◽  
Future Space ◽  
Comet 67P

Many future space missions to asteroids and comets will implement autonomous or near-autonomous navigation, in order to save costly observation time from Earth tracking stations, improve the security of spacecraft and perform real-time operations. Existing Earth-Spacecraft-Earth tracking modes rely on severely limited Earth tracking station resources, with back-and-forth delays of up to several hours. In this paper, we investigate the use of CONSERT ranging data acquired in direct visibility between the lander Philae and the Rosetta orbiter, in the frame of the ESA space mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as a proxy of autonomous navigation and orbitography science capability.

The Origin of the Moon

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 149-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Ruskol
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Solar System ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Origin Of The Moon

The difference between average densities of the Moon and Earth was interpreted in the preceding report by Professor H. Urey as indicating a difference in their chemical composition. Therefore, Urey assumes the Moon's formation to have taken place far away from the Earth, under conditions differing substantially from the conditions of Earth's formation. In such a case, the Earth should have captured the Moon. As is admitted by Professor Urey himself, such a capture is a very improbable event. In addition, an assumption that the “lunar” dimensions were representative of protoplanetary bodies in the entire solar system encounters great difficulties.

The Origin of the Moon and its Relationship to the Origin of the Solar System

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold C. Urey
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Origin Of The Moon

During the last 10 years, the writer has presented evidence indicating that the Moon was captured by the Earth and that the large collisions with its surface occurred within a surprisingly short period of time. These observations have been a continuous preoccupation during the past years and some explanation that seemed physically possible and reasonably probable has been sought.

Laboratory and in-situ analysis of comet dust

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 8-9
Author(s):  
D.E. Brownlee ◽  
A.L. Albee
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Laboratory Study ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Sem Analysis ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Cometary Material ◽  
Comet Dust

Comets are primitive, kilometer-sized bodies that formed in the outer regions of the solar system. Composed of ice and dust, comets are generally believed to be relic building blocks of the outer solar system that have been preserved at cryogenic temperatures since the formation of the Sun and planets. The analysis of cometary material is particularly important because the properties of cometary material provide direct information on the processes and environments that formed and influenced solid matter both in the early solar system and in the interstellar environments that preceded it.The first direct analyses of proven comet dust were made during the Soviet and European spacecraft encounters with Comet Halley in 1986. These missions carried time-of-flight mass spectrometers that measured mass spectra of individual micron and smaller particles. The Halley measurements were semi-quantitative but they showed that comet dust is a complex fine-grained mixture of silicates and organic material. A full understanding of comet dust will require detailed morphological, mineralogical, elemental and isotopic analysis at the finest possible scale. Electron microscopy and related microbeam techniques will play key roles in the analysis. The present and future of electron microscopy of comet samples involves laboratory study of micrometeorites collected in the stratosphere, in-situ SEM analysis of particles collected at a comet and laboratory study of samples collected from a comet and returned to the Earth for detailed study.

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