THE GREAT LUNAR EXPEDITION FOR EVERYONE: INVESTIGATING LUNAR SEISMIC EVENTS WITH CHIPSAT TECHNOLOGY

Despite the lack of active tectonic plate motion on the Moon, many natural phenomena can still create vibrations and Moonquakes. Monitoring these vibrations can give insight into the composition of the material below the surface by analyzing how they propagate and change direction. The LunaSats, equipped with accelerometers on each unit, will leverage this natural phenomenon to learn more about Lunar geology. The mission of the GLEE team is to use inexpensive consumer-grade technology to make Lunar science and experimentation widely available to undergraduate research teams worldwide. To achieve this goal, the LunaSat, a small ChipSat, was built. LunaSats will record and downlink environmental data to researchers on the ground. Although each LunaSat can only record data from the immediate surrounding area, the small form factor allows for the deployment of many across a large area. This creates a data network that can vary with position, allowing for analysis of much larger areas. Our plan to distribute LunaSats across a large area also allows us to find the epicenter of Lunar seismic events. With this array of sensors, the team plans to analyze micrometeoroid impacts and shallow Moonquakes primarily. This is due to the higher frequency and amplitude of these events when compared to deep moonquakes. These characteristics make them easier to detect with inexpensive hardware.

Before deploying these LunaSats on the Moon, the GLEE team is currently testing the LunaSat’s performance by analyzing seismic events on the ground before deploying them on the moon. We have tested software, hardware, and survivability to ensure the technology will succeed. During past experiments, the team found that the sampling rate for the accelerometer had signal aliasing. We concluded that this issue was mainly due to a low sampling rate. To ensure this issue is fixed, we are modifying the sampling rate on the newest version of the LunaSat. We plan to repeat these tests with the new sampling rate to see if performance improves. Plans also involve testing the accelerometer using shake tables and dropping weights near the LunaSat to simulate micrometeoroid impacts. These tests will validate the performance of the LunaSats accelerometers. We hope that presenting our findings at the GSA conference will allow us to discuss our data with knowledgeable peers, giving us insightful feedback on how to move forward.