Apollo Lunar Surface
Experiment Package (ALSEP)
Solar Wind Spectrometer
(SWS)
Apollo 12 Solar Wind Spectrometer at Ocean of Storms.
Note the row of footprints going from R - L, indicating the astronaut who
made them was shuffling to the side...
Left - Diagram
Right - Apollo 15 SWS
Apollo Experiment Number: S 035
Apollo Missions: 12, 15
Wt: 5.3 kg
Dim: 35.6 x 22.9 x 43.2 cm deployed
"The sensor in the SWS is a Faraday cup that measures
the charged-particle flux entering the cup. An array of 7 cups was used
to be sensitive in any direction and to ascertain the angular distribution
- one pointed vertically and the others arrayed around it at 60 degrees
off-vertical and to each other.
The purpose was (1) to compare the solar wind properties
at the lunar surface with those measured in space near the moon, (2) To
determine whether there were any subtle effects of the Moon on the solar
wind properties, and to relate these to properties of the Moon, (3) to
study the motion of waves or discontinuities in the solar wind by measuring
the time intervals between the observation of changes in plasma properties
at the Moon and at the Earth, (4) to make inferences as to the length,
breadth, and structure of the magnetospheric tail of the Earth from continuous
measurements made for 4 or 5 days around the time of full Moon."
(from: Catalog
of Apollo Experiment Operations, NASA RP -1317, JSC)
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