Charged Particle Lunar Environment Experiment

The CPLEE had a mass of 2.7 kg (6.0 lb), a stowed volume of 2540 cubic cm, and used 3.0 W power normally and 6.0 W at night when the survival heater was on.

Each analyzer consisted of a set of direction-defining slits, deflection plates, five small-aperture (1 mm nominal) C-shaped channel electron multipliers, one large-aperture (8 mm nominal) helical channel electron multiplier and 6 accumulators.

The little-used manual mode permitted the continuous application of a single deflection voltage, thus increasing temporal resolution for particles in a limited portion of the spectrum.

Useful data obtained during each 19.2-s interval (automatic mode) where, for each analyzer, 1.2-s accumulated counts of electrons and ions in 18 energy windows between 40 eV and 20 keV.

After he left Rice University in 1968, his postdoctoral student David L. Reasoner (PhD., 1968) took over the job of PI of the instrument and its data analysis.

The charged particle lunar environment experiment was deployed approximately 3 meters northeast of the central station.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.