Neutron sensors for locating sites of planetary water deposits

This is the final report of a six-month, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This project helped in exploration of the value and feasibility of use of collimated neutron detection methods for improving the sensitivity of neutron spectrometers specifically designed for deep-space missions to detect and identify both present-day deposits of near-surface water ice. The authors believed that this result helped enable a decision to include a Los Alamos-designed neutron sensor as a component of the NASA Mars Global Surveyor-01 Gamma-Ray/Neutron Spectrometer.