ARTEMIS Mission

ARTEMIS Mission

Question: Consider the following statements regarding ARTEMIS Mission:
1) ARTEMIS stands for Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun
2) They were originally members of the successful mission THEMIS in Earth orbit
Which one of the following is/are incorrect?
(a) Only (1)
(b) Only (2)
(c) Both (1) and (2)
(d) Neither (1) nor (2)
Answer :(d)
Related facts:

  • Scientists used NASA’s ARTEMIS mission and suggest that the solar wind and the Moon’s crustal magnetic fields work together to give the Moon a distinctive pattern of darker and lighter swirls.

Causes of the above pattern:

  • Every object, planet or person travelling through space has to contend with the Sun’s damaging radiation.
  • The Sun releases a continuous outflow of particles and radiation called the solar wind.
  • Because the solar wind is magnetized, Earth’s natural magnetic field deflects the solar wind particles so that only a small fraction of them reach the planet’s atmosphere.
  • But the Moon has absence of global magnetic field; however magnetized rocks near the lunar surface help in creation of small, localized spots of magnetic field.
  • The magnetic fields in some regions are locally acting as a magnetic sunscreen.
  • Moreover the field region serve as miniature magnetic umbrellas, the material that makes up the Moon’s surface, called regolith, is shielded from the Sun’s particles.
  • As those particles flow toward the Moon, they are deflected to the areas just around the magnetic bubbles, where chemical reactions with the regolith darken the surface.
  • This creates the distinctive swirls of darker and lighter material.

ARTEMIS Mission Goal:

  • ARTEMIS (Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun) is made up of two panels P1 and P2.
  • They were originally members of the successful mission THEMIS in Earth orbit studying Earth’s aurora, but were redirected to the moon in an effort to save the two panels from losing power in Earth’s shade.
  • Through this new mission scientists look to learn more about the Earth-moon Lagrange points, the solar wind, the Moon’s plasma wake and how the Earth’s magneto tail and the moon’s own weak magnetism interact with the solar wind.

By Achyutanand Pandey

Links:
http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/artemis/mission-artemis.html
http://artemis.igpp.ucla.edu/nuggets/nuggets_2017/Poppe/Poppe_17.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THEMIS