Moon Moisture Targeting Observatory (MoMoTarO) for water resource exploration and basic science application

We are developing the Moon Moisture Targeting Observatory (MoMoTarO), a radiation instrument for neutrons and gamma rays to search for the water resources on the Moon. As the fast neutrons travel through the lunar soil, they are scattered by light elements such as hydrogen in water, losing energy, and becoming thermal and epi-thermal neutrons. The non-contact water exploration without excavation can be realized by measuring the difference in the number of thermal or epi-thermal neutrons depending on water content. The MoMoTarO can also challenge the basic science such as the gamma-ray burst observation and particle physics problems. We are now constructing the engineering model and demonstrating the performance of the MoMoTarO detector.