The surface electrical properties experiment

Gene Simmons, 1 David 14. StrangvJay, 2 L. Bannister,3 D. Cubley/+ G. LaTorraca,l J. D. Redman, 5 J. Rossiter, 6 and R. 14atts6 Abstract The surface electrical properties experiment is presently planned for Apollo 17. It uses two orthogonal, electric dipole antennas laid on the surface, each 70 m long (tip-to-tip), to transmit frequencies of l, 2.1, 4, 8. l, 16 and 32. 1 mhz. The signa 1 s ure received by three mutually perpendicular coils mounted on the lunar Rover which traverses away from the transmi-tter. I nfOl~mati on fr'om tfJe Rovt~r navigation system is a 1 so reco}~ded so that H I'Jil1 he possible to constl~uct ptofi"les of each frequency as a function of distance from the transmitter and for each transmitter and each receiving coil. Interferences between waves propagating just above and just belm'l' the surface \frill give a measun~ of the dielectric constant and loss tangent of the upper layers. Reflections from layers or from lateral inhomogeneities can also be detected and studied.