Lunar explorations had been implemented by the United States and the Soviet Union since 1950s, and additionally have implemented by India, Japan, and China as well as the United States since the 21st century. The scientific missions for lunar explorat...
Lunar explorations had been implemented by the United States and the Soviet Union since 1950s, and additionally have implemented by India, Japan, and China as well as the United States since the 21st century. The scientific missions for lunar explorations by the countries have performed in most wavelengths from gamma ray to radio. However the Moon, Mercury and asteroids have never been explored with any MWIR (Mid-Wavelength InfraRed ; esp. 3~5 microns) instrument even though some planetary objects with atmosphere, like Mars, Jovian planets and their satellites, and comets, have been explored in MWIR. In particular, there is not any MWIR spectrometer as a science payload for korean space exploration. Therefore it is necessary to develop a MWIR spectrometer for korean lunar and future planetary explorations.