Application of a PZT telescope to In situ Lunar Orientation Measurement (ILOM)

Abstract

We are proposing a selenodetic mission, e.g. In situ Lunar Orientation Measurement (ILOM) to study lunar rotational dynamics by direct observations of the lunar physical liberation and the free librations from the lunar surface with an accuracy of 1 millisecond of arc in the post-SELENE project. Year-long trajectories of the stars provide information on various components of the physical librations and they can also be used to possibly detect the lunar free librations in order to investigate the lunar mantle and the liquid core. The PZT on the moon is similar to that used for latitude observations of the Earth except the half mirror above the objective, a CCD with high well capacity, and the heater beneath the mercury pool. Although a star position on the focal plane does not change even if the telescope inclines in principle, the tilt of the telescope affects the star position due to aberrations of the objective in the actual case. We obtained the relation between the deviation of the star position in CCD and the tilt of the telescope by ray tracing method and found that the effect of the tilt less than 100 arc seconds upon the star position does not exceed 1 mas. Thermal test of a tube made of CFRP showed that the tube did not incline by more than 100 seconds of arc even in the conditions of the lunar surface. We have a prospect to attain an accuracy of positioning of better than 1 mas from simulated experiments in laboratory using a CCD.