York University|Université York

Purpose

This project entitled « The Aniu Experiment » the Aniu Experiment aims to validate and calibrate two cameras for use in detecting frosts in permanently shadowed regions near the South Pole of the Moon. For such environments, the principal source of light is starlight in the far ultraviolet part of the spectrum and it is the reflection of this starlight, detected in the Aniu Cameras, which will guide future rovers exploring this region to the ices they seek, as once the aboriginal peoples of the eastern Arctic navigated to find “snow used to make water” (from the Inuktitut: Aniu). This project will achieve a deeper understanding of Lyman-α region imaging instruments to advance the technology required to produce a camera capable of detecting exposures of water ice on the moon. The technology and techniques developed during this project have a high likelihood of being used on a lunar prospecting mission to the PSRs, should Canada decide to contribute an instrument.