Research Plan of the Multiband Imager for the KAGUYA (SELENE) mission

Abstract

The Multiband Imager (MI) is one of the 14 instruments for the Japanese SELENE (KAGUYA) mission that will be launched in 2007. MI shares some components and electronics with other two instruments which are the Terrain Camera (TC) and the Spectral Profiler (SP). The 3 instruments (MI, TC and SP) are called as the Lunar Imager/ SpectroMeter (LISM). MI is a high-resolution multiband imaging camera consisting of visible and near-infrared sensors which have 5 visible and 4 near-infrared bands. We are going to observe the global mineral distribution of the lunar surface in nine band images of MI. LISM team members have been discussed about research plans using LISM data and number of proposed research topics in 3 instruments total became around 80. Within them number of research topics in which MI data is used mostly are around 40. Example of such MI research topics are, investigation of small but scientifically very important areas such as crater central peaks and crater walls, understanding of evolution history of the mare region and understanding of chemical compositional distribution within highland terrain.