Plasma Sheath around Chandrayaan-3 Landing Site: A Case Study

Abstract

India’s lander-rover mission Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to be launched in mid-2023. We have simulated a realistic scenario and investigated the electric potential development over the Chandrayaan-3 landing site under the influence of observed solar ultraviolet/extreme-ultraviolet radiation and real plasma parameters measured by THEMIS as a case study. The electric potential structures have been derived by solving Poisson’s equation, which is coupled with latitude-dependent fermionic photoelectrons, non-Maxwellian plasma electrons, and cold ions. A dynamic variation of the potential structure around the sunlit landing site has been observed through the analysis. This study predicts a photoelectron density range from 10 to 40 cm−3 and mean energy range from 2.6 to 3 eV near the surface of the Chandrayaan-3 landing site, which may be tested by the in situ measurement.