Dusty plasma environment near lunar surface

Abstract

Abstract The dusty plasmas on the Moon are investigating through the direct detection of the dust particle fluxes on the lunar surface and through the measurements of the parameters of ambient plasma. The PmL instrument is the first device developed both to detect dust particles and to determine the characteristics of the plasma environment. The PmL instrument mounted on future Russian lunar missions Luna-25 and Luna-27 is described in the article. The suggested landing sites of the stations are situated nearby the Boguslavsky crater (nearby 70° south latitude of Moon). The values of the lunar surface potential, Debye length and electric field at a latitude of 70° were obtained in this paper. The distribution of the dust particles near the selected latitudes was also determined. A brief description of the methods for detecting the dusty plasma parameters near the lunar surface was suggested.