|
|||||
|
|
The scientific rationale for the C1XS X-ray spectrometer on India's Chandrayaan-1 mission to the moon |
|
| Authors: | IA Crawford KH Joy BJ Kellett M Anand N Bhandari L d’Uston O Gasnault CJ Howe D Koschny BJ Maddison S Narendranath T Okada SS Russell B Swinyard M Wilding |
| Institution: | a Centre for Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck/UCL Research School of Earth Sciences, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK b Space Science and Technology Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK c Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK d Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3BZ, UK e Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK f Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380009, India g Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, CNRS/UPS, Toulouse, France h Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, USA i Observatory, PO Box 14, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland j European Space Agency, ESTEC, The Netherlands k Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, USA l Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore, India m Brown University, RI, USA n Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan o Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France |
| Abstract: | The UK-built Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS) will fly as an ESA instrument on India's Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon, launched in October 2008. C1XS builds on experience gained with the earlier D-CIXS instrument on SMART-1, but will be a scientifically much more capable instrument. Here we describe the scientific objectives of this instrument, which include mapping the abundances of the major rock-forming elements (principally Mg, Al, Si, Ti, Ca and Fe) in the lunar crust. These data will aid in determining whether regional compositional differences (e.g., the Mg/Fe ratio) are consistent with models of lunar crustal evolution. C1XS data will also permit geochemical studies of smaller scale features, such as the ejecta blankets and central peaks of large impact craters, and individual lava flows and pyroclastic deposits. These objectives all bear on important, and currently unresolved, questions in lunar science, including the structure and evolution of any primordial magma ocean, as revealed by vertical and lateral geochemical variations in the crust, and the composition of the lunar mantle, which will further constrain theories of the Moon's origin, thermal history and internal structure. |
| Keywords: | Moon Lunar science X-ray spectroscopy |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ | |