← Back to NASA Technology Projects
Completed TRL 5 (started at 3, targeting 5)
The Lunar OutpOst Neutron Spectrometer (LOONS) is designed to measure neutrons of solar, terrestrial and lunar origin and is a pathfinder for future Moon to Mars opportunities. LOONS is based on state-of-the-art techniques for neutron detection using segmented organic scintillators coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), and subsequently processed with modern ASICs. The current IRAD is to complete the design of the LOONS instrument, focusing on advancing the digital processing board by raising the TRL to 5, in preparation for upcoming Gateway/Artemis missions of opportunity.
The objective of this IRAD is to complete the design, fully integrate, and test a prototype LOONS instrument. As such this IRAD is a technology maturation for risk reduction and the innovative technology is a rad-hard waveform capture ASIC: the DRS-4 from Paul Scherrer Institute. LOONS is based on the double scatter technique and is designed to measure fast neutrons between 0.4 and 150 MeV with angular resolution of < 5º and consists of modern scintillating crystals (p-terphenyl which offers excellent pulse shape discrimination to distinguish 𝛾-rays from neutrons) readout by SiPM arrays (developed at NASA/Goddard through IRAD funding). Two layers of 2x5 arrays of p-terphenyl scintillator blocks (5x5x5 cm3), separated by 30-cm, provide the time-of-flight (TOF) measure from two successive neutron scatters (yellow arrow in Figure 1) in the scintillator layers (D1 and D2). The neutron energy is reconstructed from the sum of the measured recoil proton energy and the energy of the scattered neutron, determined from the TOF. The detected neutron’s incident direction can be inferred from the neutron’s scattering angle between detector elements. The time-of-flight (ToF), energy resolution, and pulse shape discrimination (PSD) were demonstrated with the two-cell Ionospheric Neutron Content Analyzer (INCA) that is awaiting a flight on the ElaNA program (PI: S. Stochaj/ NMSU), under previous IRAD support. While double scatters are of primary interest, the single scatters in either D1 or D2 also provide critical information and these fluences are much greater. The anticipated benefits include: 1) Complete design of the front-end electronics (FEE), 2) complete testing and coding of the digital processing unit (DPU), 3) fabricate the bias power supply unit (BPSU) (build to print from BurstCube mission), 4) design and fabricate the anticoincidence detector (ACD) and electronics.
Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.
This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.
None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.