NSSDCA ID: 2009-031A-05
Mission Name: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)The Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) is designed to detect the neutron flux from orbit which will be used to make neutron albedo maps and estimates of the hydrogen abundance at the surface. The primary instrument objectives are to produce hydrogen distribution maps with a sensitivity of 100 ppm hydrogen and 5 km spatial resolution, characterize the surface distribution and column density of possible near-surface water ice deposits, and creation of a global model of the neutron component of space radiation of thermal energy up to 15 MeV at 30-50 km altitude with a resolution of 20-50 km.
LEND consists of 9 passive collimator neutron sensors. Four of these are cone-shaped 3He collimated counters for epithermal neutrons of energies greater than 0.4 eV (CSETN1-4). Two are cylindrical 3He counters with Doppler filters to measure thermal neutrons (STN1-2). Two are cylindrical 3He counters, one for thermal neutrons (STN-3) and one for epithermal neutrons (SETN). The last is a stylbene scintillation sensor (SHEN) which covers the range from 0.3 to greater than 15 MeV in 16 energy channels.
Questions and comments about this experiment can be directed to: Dr. David R. Williams
Name | Role | Original Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Dr. Igor G. Mitrofanov | Principal Investigator | Russian Academy of Sciences | imitrofa@space.ru |