Aberystwyth in Space – the Moon

Solar System Physics GroupSolar System Physics Group

Open Day Manuel Grande

Aberystwyth in Space – the MoonAberystwyth in Space – the Moon

• ExoMars • Chandrayaan• STEREO• Bepi• VEX• Solar B• SDO• LoFAR• IHY



This is a

Double Planet.

The Moon is the 8th Continent



The MoonThe Moon

•Ancient body•Two major terrains

– maria (basalts)– highlands (crust)

•Most visited planetary body other than Earth•Window into our past



Apollo and Luna sample returnsApollo and Luna sample returns• 6 Manned Apollo landings• 3 Luna sample returns• Over 380kg rock and soil

brought • So you might think we

know all about it• WRONG!!• We still don’t know how

the Earth moon system formed



*

*** *

+

++

Apollo and Luna Landing sites



Unanswered questions about the MoonUnanswered questions about the Moon

•How was the Earth Moon system created?•Necessary data for the answer is composition on a global scale (not just from a few landing sites



SMART-1 (ESA)SMART-1 (ESA)

Small Missions in Advanced Research Technology - technology demonstration

• Propulsion• Remote sensing: imaging camera IR spectrometer X-ray spectrometer•Radio Science•Telemetry



SMART SMART PropulsionPropulsion

First time electric propulsion has been used by Europe in space





D-CIXS incorporated Two New Technologies•Swept Charge Device (SCD) Detectors

•Advanced Microstructure Collimator

This Enabled it to provide:•High Throughput X-ray Spectrometer

•Compact, light design

•Near room temperature operation

SMART-1 D-CIXS



D-CIXS X-ray Spectrometer on SMART-1D-CIXS X-ray Spectrometer on SMART-1

Sun Shines in X-rays

1 The Sun shines on the Moon (in X rays)

2 The Moon fluoresces

3 Each X-ray energy indicates unambiguously the abundance of a particular element in the surface

4 D-Cixs used two new technologies to detect these X-rays

5 So we can measure what the Moon is made of



Detailed task of fitting Lunar composition to the data.

This is close to the Apollo 12 landing site



The Future –KaguyaThe Future –Kaguya• Japanese KAGUYA was succesfully injected into

lunar orbit on Sep. 29 2007• We are (only) guest investigators on the X-ray

instrument• Best ever pictures of the Moon



Lunar Remote Sensing Lunar Remote Sensing and Cartographyand Cartography



Mapping the Moon (Google Moon)Mapping the Moon (Google Moon)• Current best contour map of

the far side of the Moon• Huge positional errors, as

big as 10-20 km• SMART-1 nearly impacted in

the wrong place because of this

• Tony Cook at Aber, who is one of the world’s experts, pointed this out!

• Japanese Selene is a desperately needed mission for accurately mapping the Moon, especially landing sites mission


Open Day Manuel GrandeSouth PoleLunar Base



UWA Planetary Analogue Terrain Laboratory UWA Planetary Analogue Terrain Laboratory “Mars Yard” EU facility“Mars Yard” EU facility

½ scale (ExoMars Phase A) 18 × DoF chassis



UWA 3DoF ARMand DLRMole (can bemountedon chassis)

UWAPanCam(can bemountedon chassis)

Part of PATLab. withDLR Marssoilsimulant-D

Smallselection ofinstrumentsand sciencetarget rocks

Link with PAFS-NET

UWA Planetary Analogue UWA Planetary Analogue Terrain Laboratory (PAT Terrain Laboratory (PAT Lab.) - 2Lab.) - 2



A robot telescope on the Moon

Our robot telescope is available for teaching and is also practicing for the Moon!And we provide Seagullcam!



C1XS



C1XS – Aberystwyth Returns to C1XS – Aberystwyth Returns to the Moon!the Moon!

• C1XS in Bangalore after preliminary integration

• XSM delivered• Awaiting final integration

and launch (19 Sept)

Documents

Aberystwyth in Space – the Moon