L-MAPS
Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer
On a Moon near you around 2029!
The Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer (L-MAPS) is a US-lead Passive MicroWave Spectrometer (MWS) combined with a German-contributed Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) subsystem. Using a dual polarized antenna mounted to bottom of the LTV rover, this instrument will retrieve subsurface structure, density, regolith thickness, temperatures, geothermal gradient, and constrain the presence of water ice down to 10’s of meters depth. The primary science themes provide a measurement of subsurface structure, subsurface temperatures (and geothermal gradient), and identify subsurface ice. The L-MAPS instrument team is led by Matthew Siegler from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The Instrument
L-MAPS measures passive emission and reflected radar over the 500 MHz to 6 GHz with a sensitive 1024-channel microwave spectrometer (built at NASA JPL/Caltech) and a Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave radar (built at TU Dresden, Germany). The antenna system is built at Ohio State University. The syetm will be assembled and tested at JPL and U Hawai'i. With these frequencies, we expect Passive temperatures in the upper 15+m and Active data to see layering to >40m depth.
