Scientific Objectives

The moon - like any other planetary body - has been hit many times in the past by comets, mostly consisting of water ice. In the sunlit areas, this water is being evaporated and blown away by the solar wind. As the lunar rotation axis is nearly perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, there are some polar areas in constant shade, allowing the water to remain.

Clementine view of Lunar South PoleThe first indication that supports this theory was provided by the US Clementine probe. It's radar detected anomalies in the radio reflection properties of the lunar South Pole, that were similar to the one's we detect in the water. In addition, the neutron spectrometer on board the US Lunar Prospector, and took some important measurements that indicated the presence of high quantities of Hydrogen, believed to come from the presence of water.

So if there is water ice, what is its form? Is it deposited in subsurface ice lenses? Are there water veins? Or does it cover the moon surface?

The answer to these questions will influence the methods that we 'll develop in order to take advance of this source.

LunarSAT shall verify and study the presence of water ice with the use of high resolution photographs. Also, a group of instruments will investigate the lunar environment with respect to its plasma and exosphere.

Science into the unknown

What are the main scientific objectives of LunarSAT?

  • To verify and study the Lunar South Pole ice resources
  • To investigate the pristine lunar environment with respect to its plasma and exosphere.

The US space probe Clementine made similar optical observations, but these were made under bad lighting conditions, due to orbital geometry constraints. 

So, the real extension of the eternally shadowed areas in the South Pole remains unknown. 
The answers to all these questions are being investigated by several experiments LunarSAT will perform.