<title>Miniature thermal emission spectrometer for the Mars Exploration Rover</title>

Abstract

This paper describes the dual-mission Mars 2003 Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) being built by Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing (SBRS) under contract to Arizona State University (ASU). Mini-TES is a single detector Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), covering the spectral range 5-29 microns (micrometers ) at 10 cm<SUP>-1</SUP> spectral resolution. Scheduled for launch in 2003, one Mini-TES instrument will fly to Mars aboard each of the two missions of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project (MER). Mini-TES is designed to provide a key minerological remote sensing component of the MER mission, which includes several other science instruments. Originally intended for the Athena Precursor Experiment (APEX) slated for a 2001 launch, the first Mini-TES unit was required to meet a two-year development schedule with proven, flight-tested instrumentation. Therefore, SBRS designed Mini-TES based on proven heritage from the successful Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES), which was launched in 1996 and successfully completed its intended mission of one Martian year (two earth years) with over 100 million spectra collected to date, and counting. Relevance of the Mini-TES to MER science, overall design, performance, assembly and test flow as well as details of the hardware fabricated at SBRS, are discussed.