THERMAL MODEL OF THE LUNAR-A PENETRATOR AND ITS EFFECT ON THE ACCURACY FOR LUNAR HEAT FLOW EXPERIMENT

摘要

We developed a numerical thermal model of the LUNAR-A penetrator. To make this model precise, we performed two types of experiments. One was to measure thermal conductivity (K) and the heat capacity (Cp) for each component of the penetrator. We successfully obtained these data within 10% in precision. The other was to perform a thermal response experiment for a fully integrated penetrator. With this experiment, we calibrated an initial thermal model which was constructed from the component level data. By inverting the data of the thermal response experiment, we could obtain a final thermal model which is consistent with the component level data and the thermal response experiment as a whole. Numerical simulations of the temperature field around the penetrator in the lunar regolith indicate that the uncertainty of the thermal model leads to the error of estimating the original temperature gradient of the regolith within 6%.