The Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument on the Chang’E-6 mission

The Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument on the Chang’E-6 mission | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument on the Chang’E-6 mission Romain Canu-Blot, Martin Wieser, Máté Kerényi, Stas Barabash, and 18 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4718105/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 13 Apr, 2025 Read the published version in Space Science Reviews → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument is a compact mass resolving negative ion and electron analyser flown on the Chinese Chang’E-6 mission to the Moon. NILS measures negative ions an electrons in the energy range of 3 eV/q to 3 keV/q with a mass resolution of m/Δm of about 2. The mass resolution is sufficient to separate charge converted solar wind protons and sputtered negatively charged atoms form the surface. An electro-magnetic electron suppression system allows to switch between electron and ion measurements. The fan-shaped field-of-view is divided into 16 discrete angular pixels that are scanned sequentially. For each viewing direction, an electron and an ion energy spectrum is acquired in 4.06 s. NILS has a mass of 919 g, excluding cables and multi-layer insulation. The power consumption is on average 2.7 W during nominal operations. Mass resolving negative ion analyzer Geometric factor determination Lunar surface Solar wind - regolith interaction Chang’E-6 Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 13 Apr, 2025 Read the published version in Space Science Reviews → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4718105","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":325203600,"identity":"0abbba73-a519-409c-83d4-76f04468900e","order_by":0,"name":"Romain 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