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Lunar Payloads

Planetary Science Division / Science Mission Directorate

Lunar Payloads

Volatile Spectrometer

Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System

• Science/Technology Objectives:

• Measure surface and subsurface hydration (H2O and OH).
• Measure CO2 and CH4 while simultaneously mapping surface morphology and surface temperature

• Hardware Description:

NIRVSS is a two-channel near-infrared point spectrometer.
• Payload includes a spectrometer context imager and a longwave calibration sensor.

Neutron Measurement

Neutron Measurements at the Lunar Surface

• Science/Technology Objectives:

• Measure both thermal and epithermal neutron flux at the Lunar surface.
• Potentially provide radiation environment monitoring, ground truth, and detect the presence of water or other rare earth elements.

• Hardware Description:

• The instrument is a neutron spectrometer that is based on a flight instrument currently operating on ISS.
• The neutron spectrometer consists of two identical neutron counters:

1. Wrapped in cadmium foil to absorb neutron counts above 0.4 eV.
2. Sensitive to all neutron energies and will provide neutron counts for the full spectrum.

Surface Volatiles

PROSPECT ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) for Lunar Surface Volatiles

• Science/Technology Objectives:

• Characterize the Lunar exosphere after descent and landing, and throughout the Lunar day, to understand the release and movement of volatile species.

• Hardware Description:

• PITMS is a flight-proven, ion trap mass spectrometer which was previously developed for ESA’s Rosetta mission.
• The spectrometer has a unit mass resolution and an m/z range of 2 to 150 Da.

Magnetic Fields

Development of NASA Provided Lunar Payload: Fluxgate Magnetometer

• Science/Technology Objectives:

• Characterize vector magnetic fields to further an understanding of energy and particle pathways at the Lunar surface.

• Science can be performed anywhere on the Moon, but swirls and Nectarian-aged basins are the preferred targets.

• Hardware Description:

• Payload is a two-range (+- 512 nT and Earth’s field range), DC vector fluxgate magnetometer.
• NASA will provide an engineering model of the flight-proven GOES mission magnetometer.

Radio Observations

Low-frequency Radio Observations from the Near Side Lunar Surface

• Science/Technology Objectives:

• Determine the photoelectron sheath density and scale height using a low-frequency radio receiver system.

• Hardware Description:

• The instrument is a low-frequency radio astronomy receiver system that is based on the STEREO spacecraft WAVES instrument.
• The four deployable, monopole, stacer antennas are based on those used for STEREO WAVES and will be combined as dipoles to improve sensitivity.

Mass Spectrmeter

Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo)

• Science/Technology Objectives:

• Mass spectrometer to identify low-molecular weight volatiles.
• Instrument has unit mass resolution to measure isotopes including D/H and O18/O16.
• Can be installed to accommodate two separate measurements:
• Instrument positioned to either measure the exosphere or the spacecraft outgassing and contamination (internal viewing).

• Hardware Description:

The instrument is a commercial mass spectrometer that is ruggedized for space applications.

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