 The Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals (ASAN) instrument on Chang'e 4. |
On April 7, the Swedish Institute of Space Physics successfully delivered the flight model of the Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals (ASAN) instrument to the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China.
The ASAN instrument will be launched at the end of 2018 onboard the Chinese Chang'e 4 mission to the Moon. Chang'e 4 consists of an orbiter, lander and rover.
Chang'e 4 lander and rover will land on the invisible far side of the Moon, where they will investigate the lunar environment.
Mounted on the rover, the ASAN instrument will examine the interaction of the solar wind with the lunar surface by measuring energetic neutral atoms and ions emitted from the lunar surface.
The ASAN instrument will perform these measurements from a vantage point of only 60 cm above ground. The Chang'e 4 rover is planned to make observations for at least three months on the surface.
Return to the surface of the Moon
The ASAN instrument will mark the return of Swedish built scientific instruments to the lunar surface after the famous Hasselblad cameras used during the Apollo missions.
Ongoing science
The ASAN instrument will allow a continuation of the very successful research initiated with the participation in the Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission with the SARA instrument.
A wide range of ground breaking discoveries about the interaction of the solar wind with the lunar surface were made, including the first image of a mini-magnetosphere on the Moon.
Many of the open questions raised by SARA measurements made from orbit, will find an answer with ground truth data obtained by the ASAN instrument.
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