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Lunar Exploration with Penetrators

Lunar Exploration with Penetrators. A.Smith, R.Gowen, A.Coates – MSSL/UCL I.Crawford – Birkbeck/UCL P.Church, R.Scott - Qinetiq A.Ellery, Yang Gao – Surrey Space Centre T.Pike – Imperial College (UK). MSSL/UCL UK. 8’th ILEWG Conference, Beijing, July 23-27, 2006.

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Lunar Exploration with Penetrators

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  1. Lunar Exploration with Penetrators A.Smith, R.Gowen, A.Coates – MSSL/UCL I.Crawford – Birkbeck/UCL P.Church, R.Scott - Qinetiq A.Ellery, Yang Gao – Surrey Space Centre T.Pike – Imperial College (UK) MSSL/UCL UK. 8’th ILEWG Conference, Beijing, July 23-27, 2006

  2. Lunar Exploration with high velocity micro-Penetrators A.Smith, R.Gowen, A.Coates – MSSL/UCL I.Crawford – Birkbeck/UCL P.Church, R.Scott - Qinetiq A.Ellery, Yang Geo – Surrey Space Centre T.Pike – Imperial College (UK) MSSL/UCL UK. 8’th ILEWG Conference, Beijing, July 23-27, 2006

  3. Lunar Exploration with Penetrators • Introduction/History • Advantages • Challenges • Meeting the Challenges

  4. What are kinetic micro-penetrators ? • Very high impact speed ~ 200-700 m/s • Very tough ~100,000g • Penetrate (lunar) surface ~ few metres • Very low mass ~2-5Kg

  5. ‘Classic’Design:forebody - aftbodypenetrator

  6. Complete System Architecture

  7. Planetary Penetrators History DS2 (Mars) NASA 1999 ? Mars96 (Russia) Failed to leave Earth orbit  Japanese Lunar-A much delayed  Several paper studies 

  8. Technical Demonstrator Planetary Penetrators • Propose Engineering Monitoring of microprobe system at all mission • Phases :- • post launch survival - never done before • cruise phase - never done before • pre-ejection - never done before • entry phase - never done before • post landing survival - never done before • continuous surface operations - never done before • The only previous technical demonstrator penetrator mission was NASA Deep Space-2 which had no operational confirmation at all from launch to landing.

  9. Penetrators - Advantages

  10. Penetrator Science • Lunar Seismology Presence and size of lunar core, crustal & basal fill thickness; deep structure of lunar mantle; Origin & location of shallow moonquakes. (profound understanding of Moon’s residual magnetism; origin of Moon; evolution of planetary magnetic fields) • Lunar Thermal Gradients Inhomogeneity of crustal heat producing elements (K,Th). (understanding of Moon’s early history). • Lunar Water Sensing Presence, extent and concentration of water. (Lunar evolution, future lunar resource.) • Geochemical Analysis Provide ground truth for remote sensing XFA and multi-spectral imaging. (Co-detection of organics with water might be interesting)

  11. Penetrators - Challenges

  12. Penetrators Meeting the Challenges QinetiQ – Defence and space systems company. Impact survival; electronics; comms; space platform systems. Program for ground demonstration of impact survival of platform and scientific instruments.

  13. 10 mm Penetrators Meeting the Challenges IC – (Imperial College) University with long space experience. Micro seismometers (U.S. heritage) Program to develop to withstand high-g ~100,000. Microseismometer for ExoMars fabricated from one piece of single-crystal silicon

  14. Wood wasp ovipositor Penetrators Meeting the Challenges SSC – Surrey Space Science Centre (& SSTL). Construct and operate small satellites and instruments. Micro-drill, general micro instruments; platform electronics.

  15. Penetrators Meeting the Challenges Southampton - optical fibres Potential for detection of water and chemicals. MSSL/UCL – University College London with long experience of developing variety of scientific instruments for major space missions and science analysis. Cameras, water detection. Onboard data processing. Systems engineering & project management. Space and lunar science. e.g. …Giotto (Halleys’ comet), Mars’96, Beagle-2, Soho, Cluster, Doublestar, XMM, Cassini, Swift (UVOT),Venus Express, …

  16. Conclusions • We are looking to develop kinetic penetrators for airless • planetary bodies through conceptual design -> ground • demonstration -> technical demonstrator missions -> • science missions. • Penetrators are now a priority for UK planetary future • directions. • We are happy to gain further partners, particularly in • areas of expertize not already covered. • We are looking for mission opportunities…. for exciting • engineering and science.

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