Ground Experiments and Performance Evaluation of the Low-Frequency Radio Spectrometer Onboard the Lander of Chang'e-4 Mission

TL;DR

This paper reports on ground experiments evaluating the performance of the Low-Frequency Radio Spectrometer onboard China's Chang'e-4 lunar lander, demonstrating its sensitivity after EMI mitigation in the lunar environment.

Contribution

It presents the first in-situ measurements of low-frequency radio phenomena on the Moon's far side and evaluates the spectrometer's performance through ground testing and EMI mitigation.

Findings

Sensitivity of the LFRS may reach 1e-18Wm^2Hz^-1 after EMI mitigation.

Ground experiments demonstrate the spectrometer's capability in lunar conditions.

First in-situ measurement of low-frequency radio signals on the Moon's far side.

Abstract

The Low-Frequency Radio Spectrometer (LFRS) is a scientific payload onboard the Chang'e-4 lunar lander launched in December 2018. The LFRS provides in-situ measurements of the low-frequency radio phenomena on the far-side of the Moon for the first time in human history. To evaluate the performance of the LFRS, a series of ground experiments are conducted using a prototype model of the LFRS. It is not easy to perform the experiments because the EMI \footnote{ Abbreviation: EMI, Electro Magnetic Interference} from the Chang'e-4 lunar lander itself and the environment is very intense. The results after EMI mitigation show that the sensitivity of the LFRS may be 1e-18Wm^2Hz^-1.