Abstract
The “Moon Mapping” project is a collaboration between the Italian and Chinese Governments allowing cooperation and exchange from students from both countries. Main aim of the project is to analyze remotely sensed data collected by the Chinese space missions Chang’E-1/2 over the Moon surface. The Italian Space Agency is responsible for the Italian side and the Center of Space Exploration, China Ministry of Education, is responsible for the Chinese side. The results of the “Moon Mapping” project topic #1: ”map of the solar wind ion” using data collected by Chang’E-1 satellite are summarized. Chang’E-1 is a lunar orbiter, the revolution period is 2 h and the orbit is polar. The satellite is equipped with two Solar Wind Ion Detectors (SWIDs) that are two perpendicular electrostatic spectrometers mapping the sky with 24 channels with a field of view of 15° × 6.7° each. The spectrometers can measure solar wind flux in the range 40 eV/q–17 keV/q with an energy resolution of 8%. The data collected by the two Solar Wind Ion Detectors are analyzed to characterize the solar wind flux and composition on the Moon surface, studying the large time variation due to the solar activity. The data measured by Chang’E-1, as compared with the one measured in the same period by the electrostatic spectrometers onboard the ACE satellite, enrich the multi-messenger/multi-particle view of the Sun, gathering valuable information about the space weather outside the Earth’s magnetosphere.
Highlights
The ”Moon Mapping” project is a collaboration between the Italian and ChineseGovernments allowing cooperation and exchange from students from both countries
The data collected by the two Solar Wind Ion Detectors are analyzed to characterize the solar wind flux and composition on the Moon surface, studying the large time variation due to the solar activity
The Solar Wind Ion Detectors (SWIDs) measures ion differential flux arriving from half (180°) of that plane, with a Micro Channel Plate (MCP) detector anode divided into 12 equal readouts, each has an angular view of 15°
Summary
The main aim of the project is to analyze remotely sensed data collected by the Chinese space missions Chang’E-1/2 over the Moon surface. The project has six research topics: (1) map of the solar wind ion; (2) geo-morphological map of the Moon; (3) data pre-processing of Chang’E-1 mission; (4) map of element distribution; (5) establishment of 3D digital visualization system; and (6) compilation and publication of a tutorial on joint lunar mapping. This is an unmanned lunar-orbiter equipped with different scientific instruments, in particular two Solar Wind Ion Detectors (SWIDs) were mounted on the spacecraft. The analysis of the composition of the solar wind improves our understanding of the Sun and allows constructing a model of the cislunar space environment. The interaction of the Earth’s magnetosphere with the solar wind, is a key factor of the Space Weather studies providing a sizable impact on space technology
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