Crawford, Ian and Joy, K.H. and Kellett, B.J. and Grande, M. and Anand, M. and Bhandari, N. and Cook, A.C. and d'Uston, L.C. and Fernandes, V.A. and Gasnault, O. and Goswami, J.N. and Howe, C.J. and Huovelin, J. and Koschny, D. and Lawrence, D.J. and Maddison, B.J. and Maurice, S. and Narendranath, S. and Pieters, C. and Okada, T. and Rothery, D.A. and Russell, S.S. and Sreekumar, P. and Swinyard, B.M. and Wieczorek, M. and Wilding, M. (2009) The scientific rationale for the C1XS x-ray spectrometer on India's Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon. Planetary & Space Science 57 (7), pp. 725-734. ISSN 0032-0633.
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.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Moon, lunar science, x-ray spectroscopy |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Administrator |
| Date Deposited: | 09 Feb 2011 14:28 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 16:51 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/1777 |
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