P084-04
The Lunar Seismic Package

Wednesday, 16 December 2020: 07:09
Virtual
Ian Standley1, Mark P Panning2, Simon B Calcutt3, William T Pike4, Sharon Kedar2, Ceri Nunn2, Brent R Blaes2, William Walsh2, Menooa Badalian2 and Jehal Liu2, (1)Kinemetrics Inc., Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, (4)Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
Abstract:
The Lunar Seismic Package (LSP) combines the flight heritage of the InSight Short Period (SP) seismic sensor and a high TRL Back End Electronics (BEE) that is a joint development of JPL, Kinemetrics Inc., Oxford University and Imperial College London. Based on a flight proven seismometer, the LSP is targeted to conduct the first seismological measurements on the moon since Apollo using commercial landers. As recent studies (Panning et al., 2020; Panning and Kedar, 2019) suggest that on-deck deployment is feasible on airless bodies like the Moon, a landed LSP will rapidly determine whether a high-risk, high-mass, robotic emplacement on the surface is actually needed, and will characterize lander noise – a key unknown for any future lunar seismometer on or off deck.

The LSP system includes:

  • The LSP Sensor Head comprised of a Lunar optimized SP sensor-head (TRL 9) using the micromachined silicon sensors and front-end electronics that have been operating continuously flawlessly on Mars since November 2018. The triaxal sensor package can operate in any orientation on the moon, can fit with margin in a 5x5x5cm3 box, offers improved noise performance over SP, and successfully survived pyrotechnic shock, and vibration levels of >30grms during SP testing.
  • LSP Feedback Electronics with InSight heritage demodulates the signal received from the capacitive position-sensors on the seismometer proof mass and uses this output to drive the sensor coils and maintain the proof masses at a null point.
  • The LSP BEE digitizes the seismic signals (24 Bit 130dB), provides sensor calibration and control, stores up to 20 days of 100 Hz continuous triaxial data and interfaces with the lander C&DH. The LSP BEE design funded by the ICEE-2 program for the harsh condition on the surface of Europa, charts a clear path to flight to the moon. Current breadboard testing is ongoing and all critical flight parts for the moon have been identified, with FPGA development in an advanced design stage. A proto-flight PCB will be completed by March 2021.

A future flight delivery of an LSP will be overseen by JPL with engineering, qualification and flight models delivered to JPL by Pasadena based Kinemetrics Inc. – a US seismometer manufacturer with over 50 years of experience in terrestrial seismic systems development and delivery as well as flight hardware development.

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