Home Page Proposal (.PDF) Team Members First Meeting Second Meeting Team Area
We propose the research project “Nuclear Planetology” to address to the main subjects, current development and recent findings of this new field of space science in application to past, current and future space missions. Six inter-related major goals of the project include (1) review of mapping for celestial bodies of their nuclear emission and of distribution of chemical elements, (2) study of concepts of perspective advanced telescopes of neutrons and gamma-rays for remote sensing of Moon, Mars, etc. for adequate mapping for districting geological, mineralogical and geochemical types of surface materials, (3) study of methods of active neutron measurements for determination of composition of surface material from landers on celestial bodies, (4) review the methods of nuclear data deconvolution from orbit and from the surface for determination of elementary composition of the celestial body, (5) determination of the requirements for development of nuclear physics for needs of accurate analysis of nuclear data from celestial bodies and (6) To review nuclear cosmogenic process in the surface material of celestial bodies under the action of galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events.
Goal (1) “Surface Mapping”: To review the presently available data of orbital mapping of gamma-ray and neutron emission of Moon (using Luna, Apollo and Lunar Prospector data), Mars (using Odyssey data) and Eros (using NEAR-Shoemaker data); to discuss the current problems of data transition from the level of physical counts in the instrument toward the upper level of maps of chemical elements on the surface. Some results using nuclear radiations will be compared with the data from other observations, such as the seasonal deposition of carbon dioxide on Mars surface inferred from laser altimetry and gravity measurements, or data for thermal inertia and surface albedo for sunlight, to determine the new knowledge from different sets of data, or to study areas of inconsistency and uncertainty in data from different instruments and methods.
Goal (2) “Perspective Telescopes”: To study the concepts of perspective advanced detection systems for the remote sensing of neutron and gamma-ray emission of Moon, Mars, Vesta, Ceres, Mercury, Europa, Enceladus, etc. with better sensitivity and higher spatial resolution in accordance with the requirements for adequate mapping for distincting geological, mineralogical and geochemical types of surface materials. Methods of minimizing the effects of backgrounds in such instruments will also be examined.
Goal (3) “Neutron Activation Methods”: To study the methods of active neutron measurements for determination of composition of surface material from landers on the surface of an celestial body; to determine the concept of scientific instrument for the analysis of gamma-rays and neutrons produced by neutron activation; and to discuss the strategy of active neutron experiments on the surface of Moon and Mars.
Goal (4) “Nuclear Data Analysis”: To review the methods of nuclear data deconvolution from orbit and from the surface for determination of the elementary composition of the celestial body and for testing the layering structure of shallow subsurface; to consider possible biases and errors of these methods for accurate determination of soil composition, for surface imaging from the orbit, and for resolution of depth-dependent structure of the subsurface.
Goal (5) “Requests to Nuclear Physics”: To determine the requirements for development of nuclear physics for needs of accurate analysis of nuclear data from celestial bodies from nuclear instruments; to consider the accuracy the data for nuclear cross sections, and to compare modern versions of numerical codes for Monte Carlo calculation of nuclear processes.
Goal (6) “Cosmogenic Processes”: To review nuclear cosmogenic processes in the surface material of celestial bodies under the action of galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events, including the modeling of such processes; and to discuss the implications of such in situ data for the analysis of surface origin and evolution.