Enabling Technology for Lunar Surface Science

Implementation of Lunar Exploration Initiative goals will require deployment of science packages at sites with the appropriate vantage point for obtaining the desired measurements and remote from potential (human) sources of contamination, thus requiring stand alone operation. Chief instruments/instrument package candidates include those which could provide long‐term monitoring of the surface and subsurface environments for fundamental lunar science and crew safety. The major challenge such packages face will be operating during long periods of darkness in extreme cold potentially without the Pu238 based power and thermal systems available to Apollo era packages (ALSEP). The initial attempt to design a 10 instrument environmental monitoring package with a solar/battery based power system led to a package with a unacceptably large mass (500 kg) of which over half was battery mass. We achieved considerable reduction in this mass, first through the introduction of high performance electronics capable of oper...