The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment for NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory

M L Litvak; I G Mitrofanov; Yu N Barmakov; A Behar; A Bitulev; Yu Bobrovnitsky; E P Bogolubov; W V Boynton; S I Bragin; S Churin; A S Grebennikov; A Konovalov; A S Kozyrev; I G Kurdumov; A Krylov; Yu P Kuznetsov; A V Malakhov; M I Mokrousov; V I Ryzhkov; A B Sanin; V N Shvetsov; G A Smirnov; S Sholeninov; G N Timoshenko; T M Tomilina; D V Tuvakin; V I Tretyakov; V S Troshin; V N Uvarov; A Varenikov; A Vostrukhin

doi:10.1089/ast.2007.0157

The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment for NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory

Astrobiology. 2008 Jun;8(3):605-12. doi: 10.1089/ast.2007.0157.

Affiliation

¹ Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia. [email protected]

PMID: 18598140
DOI: 10.1089/ast.2007.0157

Abstract

We present a summary of the physical principles and design of the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument onboard NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. The DAN instrument will use the method of neutron-neutron activation analysis in a space application to study the abundance and depth distribution of water in the martian subsurface along the path of the MSL rover.

MeSH terms

Hydrogen / analysis
Laboratories*
Mars*
Neutrons*
Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted
Soil / analysis
Space Flight / instrumentation*
United States
United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration*

Substances

Soil
Hydrogen