Lander and scientific equipment for exploring of volatiles on the Moon

It is known, that the analysis of the Lunar samples brought to the Earth by the American and Soviet spacecraft could not have served for the detection of water traces. However, the presence of volatiles (water in particular) on the Moon for many years has been a matter of an ever-growing interest. Three decades ago ice occurrence was anticipated in permanently shaded craters of the Moon. The results of the lunar exploration by CLEMENTINE (1994) and Lunar Prospector (1998) also testify in favour of this idea. Within the frames of the Russian Luna-Glob project a Lunar polar lander has been developed for the investigation of this problem. It is planned to drop the lander to the crater located near the South Pole of the Moon. The lander accomodates a TV-camera, a complex of scientific instruments, service equipment, a radio transmitter, an RTG and other items. The lander is intended for the investigation of the chemical composition and physical characteristics of the lunar materials at the landing site. For the analysis of the volatile content in the lunar rock the lander is equipped with a neutron detector, a gamma- ray spectrometer and a mass-spectrometer. The paper describes the design of the Lunar polar lander, its scientific equipment and expected results of the lunar exploration. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.