Significant progress has been made in Türkiye's first Lunar Mission (AYAP-1). An agreement was signed on July 5 between the Swedish Space Physics Institute (IRF) and TÜBİTAK UZAY for the Lunar Neutral Telescope (LNT) scientific payload, which will collect data on neutral particles from the Moon's surface.
Within this agreement, IRF will provide the LNT payload, and TÜBİTAK UZAY will integrate the LNT payload into the spacecraft that it has developed for the Lunar mission and make the data available to scientists of the two countries. With this payload, it will be possible to conduct research on fundamental subjects, such as plasma interactions with celestial bodies like Moon, whose atmosphere and magnetic field are not strong, and their surfaces, the contribution of Solar winds to the formation of water on the Moon, the formation of mini-magnetospheres and the physics of dust plasmas.
In addition, very productive meetings were held between these two institutions, which are experienced in the field of space technologies, and mutual information exchange took place during the meetings. As a result of this cooperation, it was agreed to expand scientific and technological cooperation between the two institutions and also between Türkiye and Sweden.