Water detection at the moon, Mars and comets with a combined neutron gamma ray instrument

Measuring the fluxes of thermal and epithermal neutrons at a planetary object in conjunction with gamma-ray spectroscopic observations will provide information about the chemical composition of the surface which is less model dependent than the gamma ray measurements by themselves. Researchers devised a passive neutron detector for this purpose. An experimental model was designed and built. Three variables provided the basis for a set of experiments: thickness of the Sm and B layers, the presence or absence of the ACS, and the position of the source relative to the PND's cylindrical axis. Experimental results are given.