Germanium detector with Stirling cryocooler for lunar gamma-ray spectroscopy

The gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) of Japanese lunar polar orbiter SELENE uses a Ge detector for the first time on a lunar mission. This spectrometer will observe lunar gamma rays for 1 year or more to determine chemical composition over the entire lunar surface. For cooling the Ge detector, we adopted a Stirling cryocooler. The SELENE GRS flight model was completed and an energy resolution of 3.0 keV (FWHM) at 1.33 MeV was achieved. This paper describes the details of the detector-cryogenic system and its performance.