Kavli Affiliate: Sven Herrmann
| First 5 Authors: Benjamin R. B. Saliwanchik, Sven Herrmann, Ivan Kotov, Paul O’Connor, Maxim Potekhin
| Summary:
The Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment at Night (LuSEE-Night) is a
project designed to investigate the feasibility of observing the Cosmic Dark
Ages using an instrument on the lunar far-side. LuSEE-Night will measure the
redshifted 21 cm transition of neutral hydrogen over a frequency range of
0.1-50 MHz, covering the redshift range 27 < z < 1100. The LuSEE-Night
instrument is a radio frequency spectrometer, consisting of four horizontal
monopole antennas, arranged to give wide zenith-pointing beams with two
orthogonal linear polarizations. This combination of polarization, spectral,
and angular sensitivity will be necessary to separate the cosmological signal
from significantly stronger foreground emissions. LuSEE-Night will observe in
drift scan during lunar night while the moon shields it from radio frequency
interference from both the Earth and sun, and will transmit science and
telemetry data back to Earth via an orbital relay during the lunar day.
LuSEE-Night will have to operate in a challenging environment: its electronics
must operate under hard radiation, the instrument must be thermally isolated
during the cold 100~K lunar night, and have a thermal rejection path to survive
the 390~K daytime temperature, and its photovoltaic and battery systems must
provide sufficient power to operate during two weeks of lunar night.
Furthermore, the instrument spectrometer must be powered throughout the lunar
night using only a 7~kWh battery, due to mass limitations. Here we describe the
power generation, storage, and delivery subsystems of the LuSEE-Night
instrument, and the simulations which were performed to design the power
subsystems and ensure instrument survival and operation throughout the long
lunar night. We also describe the Concept of Operations (ConOps) developed for
the LuSEE-Night mission, which derives from the power management simulations.
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