Jinsong PING, Marc Klein Wolt, & NCLE Team, CE-4 Ground segment team Low frequency radio astronomy in current and future lunar space mission Jinsong PING, Marc Klein Wolt, & NCLE Team, CE-4 Ground segment team

Background of the suggested collaboration Low-frequency radio astronomy, i.e. below ~30 MHz, can only be done well from space due to the cut-off in the Earth’s ionosphere, the man- made RFI and the AKR and QTN noise that make sensitive measurement from ground-based facilities impossible. NCLE is a join Netherlands and China low-frequency radio exploration for the Chang’e 4 relay satellite mission that will go in a halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 point in 2018. NCLE is also considered at a pathfinder mission for a future low-frequency space-based or moon-based radio interferometer which has the detection and tomography of the 21-cm Hydrogen line emission from the Dark Ages period as the principle science objective. At the Earth-Moon L2 point NCLE will be outside the Earth’s ionosphere and relatively far away from terrestrial interference, which, however, will still be detectable. As the Earth will always be in sight we can measure and quantify this emission for the first time since 50 years and with unprecedented quality.

Low Frequency radio astronomy explorations and studies in CE-4 Relay Satellite Low-frequency radio emission back ground at Lunar space (C&N); Type II & II Solar bursts at LF\MF\HF and connects with CME (C&N);; Planetary radio emission, AKR and others (C + N); The radio sky maps at LF\MF\HF\VHF (N + C); HF~VHF space VLBI experiments between Earth and Moon space(C&N); Cosmological path-finder studies (C&N). This will allow us not only to study the radio- and plasma physics of the earth-moon system, but also to explore mitigation and calibration techniques for exploring radio emission from the early universe and compare it with measurements made in true lunar far-side locations made by the future Chinese Lunar Lander mission. A joint NCLE S&T team has been set up under the frame of agreement between agencies.

Why cooperating under CAS-NWO frame Supported works by space agencies of both CNSA and NSO for NCLE: NCLE payload development (IM, QM, FM) S/C tracking and POD Data downlink EMC for S/C and IM has been down, IM will be test with S/C in a month. Not supported yet and Suggesting/Applying works, A: Data calibrations and validations; Data processing and correlations; Scientific studies and Joint scientific meetings; Results publication and public educations.

Not supported yet and Suggesting/Applying works, B: Pre-researches for Future missions NCLE in CE-4 lunar mission as a path finder; Simulation and pre-design an LF/MF/HF array on the far side of the moon; Simulation and pre-design a LF/MF/HF constellation for moon space like a follow on as CE-4 relay satellite; Simulation and pre-design a LF/MF/HF constellation for Earth-Sun L2 points. For more detail, see Dr. Wolt and Dr. Su in this meeting…...