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Prospect for UV observations from the Moon

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Abstract

Space astronomy in the last 40 years has largely been done from spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) for which the technology is proven and delivery mechanisms are readily available. However, new opportunities are arising with the surge in commercial aerospace missions. We describe here one such possibility: deploying a small instrument on the Moon. This can be accomplished by flying onboard the Indian entry to the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition, Team Indus mission, which is expected to deliver a nearly 30 kgs of payloads to the Moon, with a rover as its primary payload. We propose to mount a wide-field far-UV (130–180 nm) imaging telescope as a payload on the Team Indus lander. Our baseline operation is a fixed zenith pointing but with the option of a mechanism to allow observations of different attitudes. Pointing towards intermediate ecliptic latitude (50∘ or above) ensures that the Sun is at least 40∘ off the line of sight at all times. In this position, the telescope can cover higher galactic latitudes as well as parts of Galactic plane. The scientific objectives of such a prospective are delineated and discussed.

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Notes

  1. Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia, http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/, June 2014.

  2. These are the asteroids which can come within 0.05 AU from the Earth and which are larger than 140 m in size.

  3. As the famous quote by Kraft Ehricke goes “The exploration and settlement of the Moon must be done on a grand scale” (Benaroya 2010).

  4. Official website is http://blog.teamindus.in.

  5. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is the international $30 million competition to run a rover for at least 500 m on the lunar surface, sponsored by Google and operated by the X PRIZE Foundation; official website http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/.

  6. Virgin Galactic is a company within Richard Branson’s Virgin Group which plans to provide commercial space flights.

  7. Available at http://cads.iiap.res.in/tools/uvskyCalc.

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Acknowledgements

MS is thankful to Bernard Foing for his valuable comments and suggestions on the possible scientific areas we can address with LUCI. We are also thankful to the anonymous referee for very helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala 2nd block, Bangalore, 560034, India

    Margarita Safonova, Joice Mathew, Rekhesh Mohan, A. G. Sreejith & Jayant Murthy

  2. The Wise Observatory and the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Noah Brosch

  3. Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Tübingen, Sand 1, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Norbert Kappelmann

  4. Team Indus, Axiom Research Labs Private Limited, D-37, Sector-63, Noida, UP, India

    Arpit Sharma & Rahul Narayan

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  1. Margarita Safonova
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  2. Joice Mathew
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Correspondence to Margarita Safonova.

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Safonova, M., Mathew, J., Mohan, R. et al. Prospect for UV observations from the Moon. Astrophys Space Sci 353, 329–346 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-014-2056-y

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