NASA will send a low-frequency radio spectrometer to space to observe the dynamic radio energy environment near the moon’s surface to determine how natural and human-generated activity there could interfere with science experiments.
The Radio wave Observation at the Lunar Surface of the photo-Electron Sheath, or ROLSES, is one of the NASA-provided payloads set to fly aboard Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander for the IM-1 mission, the agency said Thursday.
ROLSES features four antennas mounted at two different heights to provide a variety of radio observations on the lunar surface.
“This way, we can measure the electrons’ density based upon distance from the surface,” said Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy, lead of the ROLSES instrument project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Then we can see how the number of electrons decreases as you go farther from the surface.”
The IM-1 mission will carry science and technology demonstration payloads to the moon’s South Polar region as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
