Final Report on NASA Contract NAS9-5911 The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment.

Abstract

The principal scientific objectives of the Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment were to explore the lunar ionic environment and to measure the electric potential of the lunar surface. The experiment was highly successful in that both of these objectives were accomplished. Furthermore, an additional objective, the investigation of the magnetospheric tail at lunar distances, was also successful and a new region of magnetospheric plasma was discovered above and below the plasma sheet; the lobe plasma.