Lunar Neutrals Telescope Onboard the First Turkish Lunar Mission

Solar wind precipitation on atmosphere-less bodies like the Moon generates backscattered and sputtered energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) from the surface. Since ENAs does not sense electromagnetic fields, ENAs can be assumed to retain the initial velocity if gravity effect can be ignored. This makes remote sensing of surface properties and near-surface plasma conditions possible from a spacecraft orbit. Lunar Neutrals Telescope (LNT) is an ENA instrument on the first Turkish Lunar Mission. LNT is tailored to answer several fundamental scientific questions. Three scientific objectives are set: (1) To search for volatile-rich areas on the surface including permanently shadowed regions, (2) to investigate the structure of mini- magnetosphere created by lunar magnetic anomalies and its response to the solar wind, and (3) to investigate the formation and maintenance processes of the lunar exosphere. We will present LNT scientific objectives as well as a brief description of the instrument.