The Earth-Moon-Mars (EMM) project: development of a lunar infrastructure for Earth observation

The Earth-Moon-Mars (EMM) project was recently selected within the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The project was proposed by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian National Research Council (CNR). One of the goals of the project is the development of an infrastructure to be deployed on the lunar surface. With this infrastructure, CNR is involved in the development of an Earth observing system, named LETO (Lunar Earth Temperature Observatory) including a Fourier transform spectro-radiometer (LETO-FTS) and an imager (LETO-IMG). These two instruments, akin to the FORUM ones, will continuously monitor the brightness temperature and the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) flux of the whole Earth’s disk. Specifically, the LETO spectro-radiometer will measure the spectral radiance emitted by the whole Earth’s disk, in the far-IR (FIR) mid-IR (MIR) range, approximately between 100 and 1600 cm-1 (6-100 μm in wavelength).The images will permit to identify possible thermal anomalies related to severe events, such as large fires, m in wavelength).The images will permit to identify possible thermal anomalies related to severe events, such as large fires, volcanic eruptions, etc. that might have an impact on the whole Earth brightness temperature measured by the FTS.