ASI Science from the Moon

WP 1500 Particles and Fundamental Physics Brief Report

AMES January 2007

R. Battiston

Sez. INFN and University of Perugia

Some consideration about the moon payloadsFrom the ASI and ESA call , as well as Moon Base conference (2006)

Sir, with this Letter we respond to the “Call for themes for 2015-2025” opened by the Science Programme of

the European Space Agency in view of its future long term Scientific Programme.……………….The theme we propose is “Our Laboratory Moon” which is based on the exploitation of the unique

features of our satellite to study fundamental physics phenomena. Space means exploration. Exploration in turn means searching for things never reached before. ………………

Signed R. B. + 30 INAF and INFN scientists …………..

“Our Laboratory Moon” Being there staying here………….. However the continuous technological advances in the field of telescience and virtual sensing

could brilliantly overcome this limit. The Moon, in fact, is the only celestial body which is within 1.5 light seconds from us: this is a short enough time for electromagnetic waves, which would allow the use of robotic tools operated from the Earth as simple extensions of ground based operators arms, hands and senses, like in the case of telemedicine and like it is not possible as in the case of Mars rovers, which are separated from us ~ 10 light minutes.

……………..Many of these industrial processes can be developed and tested on Earth before trying it on the Moon,

where one would learn how to do it in the real conditions. The first series of missions will be devoted to set up processing plants to extract basic components, like oxygen, aluminum and water from the lunar soil and to set up the power generating and storing systems to sustain future facilities through interruptions in solar availability. These missions should all aim to the same location to the Moon, which has been identified as the area of “perpetual sun” near the South Pole. Here hydrogen should also exist, although there is no agreement today on which form it takes. The presence of hydrogen and perpetual sun, would make this location the most advantageous for initial operation.

Additional missions, would add capabilities and instrumentations, with a philosophy which would be highly interactive and flexible. It should be as we were there, through the robots which are acting under our direct telecontrolling. This approach would allow to tolerate losses and mistakes, which, although unavoidable in an highly research oriented program, could have a tremendous damage and negative effects if humans were involved directly. Telepresence on the Moon is the goal of this pioneering program, allowing the rovers to operate like humans on tasks which would include rover repair activities, assembly and configuration of experiments, continuous feed back on many various parameters otherwise very difficult if not impossible to control using predetermined algorithms.

…………There are a lot of processes which would require, if performed in telepresence on

the Moon, rethinking with respect on the Earth: the reduced gravity, absence of atmosphere, extreme temperature, limited facilities available, will call for simplification of manipulation and complexity of the processing. It will be like the dawn of a new age, not based on stones or fire or bronze, but more likely on solar radiation, hydrogen and aluminum. Tooling will be adjusted to the new tasks and conditions, in particular thermal condition would be of extreme relevance. Solar furnaces would be a common tool, soils would be heated to form glass and to shape rods, tubes and fibers. Sintering could be used instead of melting for a number of applications.

Machines shop capability could be gradually added to work on the various materials and ceramics built on the moon, adding tremendous flexibility to modify and repair existing equipment or to build new one. Experiments could then be created without waiting for another launch, reducing the turn around time for engineers and scientists to see their ideas become reality from decades to days. More sophisticated machining methods, like electron beam or plasma will be easily implemented because of the presence of vacuum.

We anticipate a strong public attention to the progress on a moon laboratory program based on telepresence. Public attention is particularly strong when space exploration is connected to humans but also to human related activities, like risk, error, trial, ingenuity. This explains why the public interest is as high as for a human mission, and may be even higher when a Mars rover lands or takes the first photograph of a stone, or even get lost on Mars. A lunar telepresence laboratory would bring daily new stories, about issues which are very close to everybody experience; it would allow to share some of the thoughts, decisions, trials; it would allow wide sharing through the internet of finding and results; it might allow sharing of lunar telepresence, which would set an unprecedented tool for a wide audience of non astronauts. In addition to the interest for new results about our universe, which is, in our opinion, the main reason for supporting this theme, public participation to this long term program would be very beneficial for ESA and space exploration in general.

40 cm of regolith T=-20 ± 3 C

Beneath 40 cm of regolith you can have all the benefits of being on the moon

BUT

to be in a stable cold environment as in a Underground Laboratory as the INFN

Gran Sasso

1500 PARTICELLE

SCIENCE THEMES

High Energy Gamma Rays

Extremely High Energy

High Energy Neutrinos (a)

Extremely High Energy High Energy Neutrinos

(b)

High Energy Cosmic

Rays

Gravitational waves (b)

Solar plasma properties (a)

Plasma interaction with planetary surface (b)

Gravitational waves (a)

Fundamental physics

tests

WP1500

Particelle

Very Promising

Interesting

Interesting

Promising

Interesting

Interesting

Very promising

Advanced/completed

Started/ongoing

1 Very Promising

2 Promising

3 Interesting

WP1510 High Energy Gamma Rays F. Cervelli INFN Pisa

WP 1510 MISURE NEI GAMMA F. CERVELLI / P. LUBRANO

SCIENCE Sito

THEMES

High Energy Gamma Rays Measures

Fundamental PhysicsVery-High Energy Acceleration

Processes

Discovery of new particles

Detection of Gamma

Rays by using the lunar

regolith like a passive material to build an

electromagnetic

calorimeter to measure energy and direction of

particles

Detector inside the

lunar ground

Scintillator bars in the lunar

ground within the holes of 20

mm in diameter, which distance between them is

about 5 cm (or 10 cm). The

hole depth is 10 cm for the first circumference (which

radius is 10 cm), 20 cm for

the second, 30 for the third etc. up

1 - 300

GeV

.--> energetic

resolution

20%/Sqrt(E) --> angular

resolution

< 1 degree

Requirements

Range /sensitivity

SUB THEMESSCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

OBJECTIVES

DETAILED SCIENCE

OBJECTIVES

MEASUREMENTS

Using the regolith to build a multi ton EM calorimeter on the Moon

WP 1520 Raggi CosmiciP. Spillantini Firenze, T. Brunetti Perugia

WP 1520 MISURE RAGGI COSMCI DI BASSA/MEDIA/ALTA ENERGIA P. MARROCCHESI / B. BERTUCCI

SCIENCE SUB

THEMES

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

OBJECTIVES

DETAILED SCIENCE

OBJECTIVESSITO

MEASUREM

ENTS

Require

ments

THEMES Range Sensitivity Coverage

High Energy Cosmic Rays Measure

Fundamental Physics

Ultra-High Energy Acceleration

Processes

Cosmic Rays composition

in correspondence with

the knee (10^15 eV)

Moon surface and

underground

in a flat region

Charge, Energy,

10^13-

10^16

eV

Exposure

factor >

10.000 m2 sr d

Large

acceptance > 10

m2 sr

First generation particle detectors on the Moon for a lunar cosmic ray observatory.

P. Spillantini, University and INFN, Firenze (Italy)Abstract

A complete program at the forefront of the space science and technology should include a set of Moon based observatories to explore any aspect of the Universe, and the Moon based observation of cosmic rays must be part of this program. Thinking to the Moon as a huge Space Station, the installation of experiments in a location suitable equipped on its surface should compensate for the cost of the Earth to Moon transportation. In this perspective it is discussed what could be obtained installing on the future Moon Base the experiments selected in the last two decades but never flown for several reason, among them the high cost of the spacecraft. They could be considered the basic instruments, whose evolution will constitute the ‘first generation Moon based CR experiments’. They are discussed for the five typical ‘categories’ already used in the Washington workshop: high Z, rare isotopes, antiparticles and antinuclei, composition at the knee, UHECR. It is also discussed the importance of establishing on the Moon a CR monitoring system for alarming for violent solar events and monitoring the GCR flux and spectra. Finally are mentioned examples of specific technical developments needed for CR detection system on the Moon.

• What detectors for the first CR experiments on the Moon?• Therefore we’ll begin by discussing what could be obtained just installing on a future

Moon Base the CR experiments selected in the last two decades by different Institutions and Space Agencies, arrived sometimes at the stage of prototypes or

precursors, but never flown for the lack either of flight occasions or of suitable carriers or of the needed total final investment. In the perspective of the Moon Base program these experiments could be called ‘zero generation Moon based’ experiments, whose

evolution constitute the ‘first generation Moon based experiments’, subject of this report..

• Let in the discussion use the same ‘categories’ used in the Washington workshop [8], i.e.:

• measurement of the fluxes of very high and extremely high Z CR;• measurement of the fluxes and energy spectra of the rare CR

isotopes;• measurement of the fluxes and energy spectra of the antiparticles and

search for antinuclei;• measurement of the CR composition at the ‘knee’;• measurement of the fluxes and energy spectra of the Ultra High

Energies CR.

WP 1530 High Energy neutrinosA. Petrolini INFN Genova

WP 1530 MISURE NEUTRINI DI ENERGIA ESTREMA A. PETROLINI , P. SPILLANTINI

SCIENCE SUB

THEMES

SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

OBJECTIVES

DETAILED SCIENCE OBJECTIVES

SITO MEASUREMENTS Requirement

s

THEMES Range Sensitivity Coverage

Very high energy neutrinos (a)

Fundamental Physics

Ultra-High Energy

Acceleration Processes

Discovery of new particles

Detection of fast coherent Cherenkov

radio-pulses emitted by particles showers produced by the

interaction of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic

Particles with the lunar regolith.

Lunar satelliteOrbital

height: (100-500) km

Large acceptance (towards the Moon limb) and almost isotropic apparatus.1) Three dipole aerials in orthogonal

configuration.2) Other configurations.

Frequency range:

0.01÷1.0 GHzBandwidth:(100-400)

MHz

Pmin< -140

dBm/Hz

Large acceptance

Very high energy neutrinos (b)

Fundamental Physics

Ultra-High Energy

Acceleration Processes

Discovery of new particles

Detection of fast coherent Cherenkov

radio-pulses emitted by particles showers produced by the

interaction of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic

Particles with the lunar regolith.

At the Moon surface.

Almost horizontal observation

Frequency range:

0.01÷1.0 GHzBandwidth:(100-400)

Mhz

2p coverage in azimuth.

The study of Ultra-High Energy neutrinos from the MoonReport after three months

O. Catalano, S. Bottai, P. Galeotti, A. Gregorio, R. Pesce, A. Petrolini, P. Spillantini and P. Vallania.Contact persons

• The scientific case and status of the field• Neutrinos are fundamental particles which still present

a number of unknown features, after about fifty years from their discovery. In fact neutrinos interact so weakly that their detection, that is their study, requires huge targets, of the order of cubic kilometers at least, to observe a significant number of events.

• Although neutrino telescopes are already in operation, no UHEnu has been reported, yet.

• Large volumes of the atmosphere, sea, polar ice or salt rock are used or planned for experiments at the Earth.

• The Moon itself provides a possible huge appealing target for detecting such particles.

The study of Ultra-High Energy neutrinos from the Moon (2)

• . Due to their weak interactions neutrinos can easily escape their production environment, carrying outside the information on the generating processes at the interiors of the source. On the other hand the weakness of their interaction with matter prevents an easy detection and requires very huge target masses (larger than about 1015 g, that is 1 km3 of water) to detect their presence.

• Several techniques have been proposed and used to discover the extremely rare signature of astrophysical neutrinos. The experiments of the first generation did not register any events (as expected by their small dimension) establishing upper limits to UHE neutrino fluxes [18]. The key point to increase the sensitivity and discover weaker fluxes of neutrinos is the amount of target mass and the only possibility is to detect signals of neutrino interactions inside natural detectors, such as the sea (experiments Antares and NEMO), the Antartic ice (experiments Amanda, Icecube and RICE), the atmosphere (experiments AUGER and EUSO), salt domes (experiments SALSA) and the Moon regolith, as it is seen from Earth (GLUE).

Coherent radio Cherenkov detection of UHEnu

• An interesting approach to observe UHE Cosmic Particles, which is receiving increased attention nowadays thanks to its interesting and promising features, involves the detection of the short radio pulses produced by the EPS which is generated by the interaction of the primary Cosmic Particles with the surface of the Moon.

• The current literature suggests that the coherent radio pulses, in the (0.011) GHz frequency range, generated in the lunar regolith travel without a significant attenuation, and are capable to escape the interiors of the Moon to be detected from outside the Moon.

• The appealing characteristics of the Moon for this kind of experiment are:– the low expected radio-background;– the possibility to observe the signal from an observation point much

closer to the signal source with respect to the observations from the Earth, via radio-telescopes.

EPS in the Moon regolith

• Part of the energy of the EPS is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation as a coherent radio Cherenkov emission (Askaryan effect). The nominal Cherenkov angle is about = 54, around the EPS direction, which is well collimated with the direction of the primary neutrino. The emitted radio waves have an angular spread around the Cherenkov angle due both to the spread of direction of the emitting particles in the EPS and to the finite track length of the emitting particles and of the EPS, which is comparable to the emitted wavelength at frequencies of a few hundreds of MHz or above.

Detection of coherent Cherenkov radio from lunar orbiters

Detection on the moon

• comparison with terrestrial apparatus like SALSA is not in favour of a surface Moon detector.

regolith~ 10-20 m

10km

antennas

shower

Moon surface

regolith~ 10-20 m

10km

antennas

shower

Moon surface

Requirements for the instrumental apparatus

• The frequency range of interest spans the range {0.12} GHz with a bandwidth 50 MHz.

• A radio detection system with a large acceptance solid angle (up to an almost isotropic one) is required: 2 sr.

• The minimum sensitivity required to the radio detection system is about S 0.01 (V/m)/MHz.

• Detection of the polarization of the radio-wave is required.• Angular resolution of the order of one degree is required: 10

mrad.• Time-resolution of the radio-receiver apparatus at the ns level is

required.• Simultaneous measurements in different spectral bands is

required.

Types of antennas and sensitivity

The limitations of a lunar satellite based experiment

Lunar satellite detectors can detect signals from neutrino induced EPS inside a very huge target mass. However, at variance with respect to what happens at the Earth, due to the fact that protons can reach the surface of the Moon, many events are expected to be generated by protons, too. There are limits in the possibility to use the shape of the signal to distinguish neutrinos from protons.

The main difference of proton and neutrino EPS arise in the depth inside the Lunar regolith, but the possibility to measure it geometrically by a satellite seems very hard. Probably only a constellation of more than 3 satellites looking at the same event could in principle afford such measurement. The feasibility of such possibility still must be studied.

The limitations of a lunar satellite based experiment

• In case a threshold as low as 1016eV can be reached, the apparatus might see neutrinos coming from the centre of the Moon. Due to geometrical considerations it would be very difficult for the radiation produced by down-going protons on the nadir of the satellite to reach the antenna. So in this configuration the proton background should be reconsidered.

• Another limitation of a Moon satellite detector will be the reconstruction of EPS direction. Due to the geometry of the Cherenkov emission is difficult to constrain the possible axis directions using only one or a few measurements far away. The resulting pointing accuracy is worst than ten degree and this aspect, if not solved in some way, might prevent the possibility to detect and identify point sources of neutrinos.

WP1540 Solar Plasma measurements R. Bruno INAF IFSI Roma

WP 1540 PROPRIETA' DEL PLASMA SOLARE R. BRUNO

SCIENCE THEMES

Solar wind plasma properties solar wind observations on board a

lunar orbiter

plasma interaction with non-magnetized bodies

Study of pick-up ions of lunar origin deriving from the volatile

components of the lunar soil generated from

the "ion sputtering" phenomenon

protons, alphas and minor ions

20eV-40KeV

dE/E=5% 4, 0.1sec

differential diffus ion of solar wind protons and electrons within the

"lunar wake"s tudy of magnetosphere

dynamics during magnetosheath, plasma-sheet, lobes e far tail

cross ings

coordinated s tudy us ing earth orbiting satellites and satellites

located at L1 withinthe framework of space weather

planetary surfaces and solar wind plasma interaction observations of a

planetary exosphere onboard a

lunar orbiter

s tudy of the ion-sputtering process respons ible for generating planetary

exospheres

es timate of the global mass loss (especially of the mos t volatile)

from the unmagnetized body

about 60x2 degrees nadir pointing, 1 min

evaluation of the planetary surface alteration due to the

solar wind impact("space weathering")

Requirements Coverage/resoluti

onRange /sens itivity

neutral atoms 20 eV-5 keV

SUB THEMES SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

OBJECTIVES

DETAILED SCIENCE

OBJECTIVES

MEASUREMENTS

WP 1550 Gravitational WavesMichele Punturo INFN Perugia

WP 1550 ONDE GRAVITAZIONALI M. PUNTURO

SCIENCE THEMES

Gravitational Waves Moon resonant

modes measurement

Identification of the GW sources in the mHz

range; Definition of the sensitivity performances; understanding of the noise

sources; evaluation of the possible measurement instrumentation

(displacement sensors)

Gravitational physics of massive

binary systems far from the coalescence

full sky / depending

on the number of surface detectors

Interferometric detector

Identification of the GW sources in the Hz region; definition of the sensitivity

performances at different frequencies; evaluation of the possible detector

technologies

full skyGravitational physics of 1Hz sources (known pulsars, massive

binary systems ,…) at cosmological distance;

coincidence wit terrestrial detectors for angular

measurements

Michelson interferometer

1-100 Hz

Requirements Coverage/resolutionRange /sensitivity

Quadrupolar resonant modes

measurement

2-3 mhz

SUB THEMES SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OBJECTIVES

DETAILED SCIENCE OBJECTIVES

MEASUREMENTS

WP 1560 TEST DI FISICA FONDAMENTALE G. TINO

SCIENCE SITOTHEMES

Tests of GR

RequirementsRang e /sens itivity

MEASUREMENTS SUB THEMES SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DETAILED SCIENCE

Gravitational waves detection in the mHz range using the Moon as spherical resonant

Tests of Fundamental Physics

Inertial sensors based on atom interferometry

Network of sensors on Moon surface

Quadrupolar resonant modes measurement through differential gravity acceleration Moon surface

Search for strange quark matter and particle sources outside solar system causing high

Optical clocks on the Moon

Search for possible time variation of the physical constant with time and space

Search for possible variation of fundamental constant by comparing a clock on the Moon surface with different

Moon surface (near side)

Two-way optical link (asynchronous transponder on the Moon)

Optical time and frequency tranfer between Moon and Earth at below 10-17

Moon surface (near side)

Gravitational physics of massive binary systems far from the coalescence

Test of Pricniple of Equivalence at 10-15

Acceleration measurement with different Rb isotopes in free fall

0-1 g 10-15 g

2-10 mHz 10-15 g

Particle detection through epilinear moonquakes

Moon surface Detection of seismic waves

1 mHz to 10 Hz

Measurement of the gravitational frequency shift

Test the gravitational red-shift prediction at 10-8 level by comparing a clock on the Moon surface and a clock

Moon surface (near side) Frequency difference

Frequency difference

10-10 g at 1 sec

visible spectrum 3 10^14 - 6 10^14 Hz

0.5 Hz at 1 sec. (10-15 at 1 s) 0.001 Hz accuracy (10-17)

WP 1560A Quantum Interferometers and Atomic Clocks

Guglielmo Tino Universita’/INFN Firenze

Atom InterferometersAtom Interferometers

R1ù R2ù

|1

|1

|1

|1

|2

|2

|2

A

B C

D

R2ù

R1ù

|2

|2

|1

|1

|1

|1A

BC

D

|2

With an acceleration g,the phase difference

=2keff.

(a-2( x v)) T2

where k is the laser wavenumber and Tthe time interval between laser pulses

TRANSVERSAL PULSES-the interferometer encloses an area-used to measure rotations (GYROSCOPES)

de Broglie wave dB=h/mv LONGITUDINAL PULSES-no area enclosed-used to measure accelerations (GRAVIMETERS)

With an acceleration g,the phase difference

=keffg T2

where k is the laser wavenumber and Tthe time interval between laser pulses

Matter-wave vs light Matter-wave vs light interferometryinterferometry

rotations: 10at

ph

mat 105h

cm~ ⋅≈⋅⋅

1711

2

atph

mat 1010v

c~ −≈⎟⎟

⎠

⎞⎜⎜⎝

⎛

accelerations:

Acceleration

• Bias stability: <10-10 g

• Noise: 4x10-9 g/Hz1/2

• Scale Factor: 10-12

Theoretical sensitivity

Rotation

• Bias stability: <60 deg/hr

• Noise (ARW): 4 deg/hr1/2

• Scale Factor: <5 ppm

Current performances

Possible Experiments on MoonPossible Experiments on Moon

• Technology

- Gravimeters absolute calibration- Navigation (gyroscopes, accelerometers)

• Fundamental Physics- Gravitational Waves detection through moon quadrupolar resonant modes- Detection of Strange Quark Matter nuggets through epilinear moonquakes- Tests of General Relativity (Principle of Equivalence)

• Moon is an ultra-quiet natural environment

- very low seismic energy- no tidal or teptonic effects

improve sensitivityincrease TdriftLow gravity

Optical Clocks on MoonOptical Clocks on Moon

• Moon is an ultra-quiete natural environment

- very low seismic energy- no atmosphere- no tidal or teptonic effects- good temperature stability (30 cm below surface)

• Scientific Goals:

- Test of General Relativity (gravitational red-shift) @ 10-8 (4000 times better than GP-A)- Test of String theories (variation of fundamental constant) (d/dt)/ @ 10-

17 /yr (10 times better than ACES proposal)

best environment for new optical frequency standards

Proposal: Frequency comparison between a clock on the Moon surface and clock on the Earth (two way optical link between the two clocks)

Why OpticalWhy Optical

ττσ

τ

Crmsy

T

NSQ

11)(

0

≈Δ

≈

QQCsCs 10 101010CsCs = 9,192 ... GHz = 9,192 ... GHz

QQOpt. ClockOpt. Clock ~~ 10 1014 14 -- 10101515Opt. ClockOpt. Clock 400 - 1000 THz 400 - 1000 THz

• Fractional frequency instability (Allan variance)

MW vs. OpticalMW vs. Optical

Today best microwave atomic clocks (Cs fountain):- accuracy 8 10-16 - stability (1 s) 1.5 10-14

Optical clocks (expected performances):

- accuracy < 10-17

- stability (s) < 10-16

Optical Clocks on MoonOptical Clocks on Moon

• Technology

- Clock comparison (redefinition of the SI second, …)- Deep space navigation and positioning, VLBI, laser ranging, …

• Fundamental Physics

- Test of General Relativity (gravitational red-shift)- Test of String theories (variation of fundamental constant)

All this kind of experiment involving ultra-stable laser sources, and ultra-cold atoms in spacespace will benefit from the ACES and LISA project, which has requested significant engineering efforts.

WP 1560B Lunar Laser RangingSimone Dell’Agnello LNF

Test di fisica fondamentale Robotic MoonLIGHT (Moon LIGHT Instrumentation for High-accuracy Tests): second generation lunar laser ranging with robotic deplyoment. The manned version of MoonLIGHT has been proposed to NASA on Oct-27-2006.

Dinamica interna della luna

banda KA 0,1 mm di precisione sulla distanza relativa tra i transponder ottenuta cancellando gli effetti

atmosferici e ionosferici

Transponders posizionati per effettuare misure accuratissime di distanze relative sulla

Interferometro a microonde

Tre transponders in banda KA posizionati a 1000 km di distanza, interrogati da una stazione posta a terra

Very high accuracy measurement of the

Earth-Moon distance in the next few

decades for high-accuracy test of

General Relativity and brane world theories (Dvali et al, PRD 68, 024012 (2003), "The accelerated universe and the Moon"). The optical ranging unce

Improvement of present GR measurements of: 1) Weak Equivalence Principle, 2) Strong Equivalence Principle, 3) Gdot/G, 4) De Sitter effect, ie measurement of PPN parameter beta, at present the most precise, 5) violation of the 1/r̂ 2 law below 10^(-10) time

Measurement of the position of an array of 8 retro-reflectors of

large size (10 cm), on an area of 100 m x 100 m. Interference

measurements will be possible, unlike for the

Apollo 11, 14, 15 arrays.

Existing lunar laser ranging stations, one of them is in Matera (MLRO-ASI). The station in Los Alamos, APOLLO (Apache POint Lunar Laser ranging Observatory) is the one which will benefit immediately from the MoonLIGHT devices. Stations which will upgrade

From 0.1 mm accuracy on the

Earth-Moon distance (using the JPL standard orbit determinaion

techniques) with existing lunar ranging stations, down to few microns (ONLY of

the ranging component of the error) with future

shorter-pulse lasers. Errors will al

Coverage larger that the lunar Apollo mission 11, 14, and 15. Accuracy up to a factor 1000 better. Intrinsic ranging accuracy limited by wavelength. Other sources of error will become the mechanical stability of the installation and the control of the the

Tre transponders in banda KA posizionati

a 1000 km di distanza, interrogati da una

stazione posta a terra

MoonLIGHT:MOON LASER INSTRUMENTATION FOR GENERAL

RELATIVITY HIGH-ACCURACY TESTSC. Cantone, S. Dell’Agnello, G. O. Delle Monache, M. Garattini, N. Intaglietta

Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) dell’INFN, Frascati (Rome), ITALYR. Vittori

Italian Air Force, Rome, ITALY

• From the abstract …….– a proposal (to NASA) for improving by a factor 1000 or more the

accuracy of the current Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) experiment (performed in the last 37 years using the retro-reflector arrays deployed on the Moon by the Apollo 11, 14 and 15 missions). Achieving such an improvement requires a modified thermal, optical and mechanical design of the retro-reflector array and detailed experimental tests. The new experiment will allow a rich program of accurate tests of General Relativity already with current laser ranging systems. This accuracy will get better and better as the performance of laser technologies improve over the next few decades, like they did relentlessly since the ‘60s.

LNF–06/ 28 (IR)November 1, 2006

Multimirror panel and thermal measurements

The accelerated universe and the MoonGia Dvali, Andrei Gruzinov, and Matias Zaldarriaga

Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA

• Cosmologically motivated theories that explain the small acceleration rate of the Universe via the modification of gravity at very large, horizon, or superhorizon distances, can be tested by precision gravitational measurements

at much shorter scales, such as the Earth-Moon distance. Contrary to the naive expectation the predicted

corrections to the Einsteinian metric near gravitating sources are so significant that they might fall within the sensitivity of the proposed Lunar Ranging experiments. The key reason for such corrections is the van Dam–Veltman–Zakharov discontinuity present in linearized

versions of all such theories, and its subsequent absence at the nonlinear level in the manner of

Vainshtein.

Status of the Moonlight proposal

• La versione manned (MonLIGHT-M) e' stata sottoposta alla NASA il 27 Ottobre 2006. PI e' Doug Currie (University of Maryland) e S.dell’ Agnello e’ Co-PI. La decisione della NASA e' attesa per primavera 2007.

• In questo contesto e’ stato proposta una “Suitcase Science to the Moon”

• Si propone nell’ ambito dello studio ASI, MoonLIGHT-R (Robotic version of MoonLIGHT)

New area of interest: particle detection using moon seismology (under study)

C. Fidani INFN Perugia • Particles detection (strangelets, nuggets) on the moon through the study

of epilinear moonquakes (Banerdt, Chui et al 2005)– It was pointed out in 1984 by Witten that strange quark matter (SQM) – matter made

of up, down, and strange quarks (rather than just up and down, as are protons and neutrons) – might well be stable and the lowest energy state of matter. The reason is that it would be electrically neutral and have less Pauli-Principle repulsion. Binding would increase with numbers of quarks, and might not begin below thousands. It would have nuclear density. Neutron stars would be strange quark stars; and it might conceivably constitute dark matter. One way to detect ton-range SQM nuggets (SQNs) would be from seismic signals they would make passing through the Earth. We give a rough estimate on the relative advantage of attempting to detect SQNs on the Moon over Earth (about 50 times more detections).

• Extrasolar causes for certain moonquakes (Frohlich, Nakamura, 2006)– Reanalysis of lunar seismic data collected during the Apollo program indicates that

23 of the 28 rare events known as high-frequency teleseismic (HFT) events or shallow moonquakes occurred during one-half of the sidereal month when the seismic network on the Moon’s near side faced approximately towards right ascension of 12 h on the celestial sphere. Statistical analysis demonstrates that there is about a 1% probability that this pattern would occur by chance. An alternate possibility is that high-energy objects from a fixed source outside the Solar System trigger or even cause the HFT events.