CRA seminar (Prof. Richard Miller)

Title: Ex Luna, Scientia: The Lunar Occultation Explorer (LOX)

Abstract: The Lunar Occultation Explorer (LOX) is a next-generation mission concept currently under consideration within NASA’s MIDEX program. LOX will provide new capabilities for time-domain astronomy and establish the Moon as a platform for nuclear astrophysics. Performance requirements are driven by our focused science goal: resolving the enigma of Type-Ia supernova (SNeIa). Specifically LOX will reveal new details of these profoundly radioactive objects, including their intrinsic diversity, probing their fundamental thermonuclear parameter space, performing a census of progenitors and their explosion mechanisms, and evaluating the environmental conditions and intrinsic systematics of these enigmatic objects. LOX provides new capabilities for all-sky, continuous monitoring in the MeV regime (0.1-10 MeV) by leveraging the Lunar Occultation Technique (LOT). Key benefits of the LOX/LOT approach include maximizing the ratio of sensitive-to-total deployed mass, low implementation risk, and demonstrated operational simplicity that leverages extensive experience with planetary orbital geochemistry investigations; LOX also enables long-term monitoring of MeV gamma-ray sources, a critical capability for SNeIa science. Proof-of-principle efforts validated all aspects of the mission using previously deployed lunar science assets, and led to the first high-energy gamma-ray source detected at the Moon. LOX mission performance, development progress, and expectations for science investigations will be presented.