LUVIMS lunar UV and IR mapping spectrometer

Abstract

A new imaging spectrometer particularly designed for the lunar mission MORO (Moon ORbiting Observatory) is presented. This spectrometer, named LUVIMS (Lunar UV and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer), is characterized by high performances—high spectral, high spatial resolution—being at the same time small, light weight and has a low power consumption. An imaging spectrometer, operating in the visible an infrared, is able to provide information about lunar mineralogical composition. By means of LUVIMS it will be possible to identify most of the mineralogical species and to relate their distribution with the surface morphology LUVIMS scientific objectives concerned the geochemical characterization of the Moon's surface in terms of global mapping, identification of different material and their distribution, mineralogical analysis of different terrain observations with high spatial resolution added to high spectral resolution can be the most powerful technique to have information on the lunar material origin and evolution. The spectrometer has been designed in order to work properly on either a tri-axis stabilized or a spinning spacecraft. In fact MORO has being studied as a candidate mission for the third cycle of Medium size missions, M3, in the framework of ESA's Horizon 2000 scientific programme. During the assessment phase, parametric solutions have been evaluated, but it has been shown that LUVIMS can fulfil the scientific requirements in any of the proposed spacecraft configurations. During phase A of the MORO mission the three-axis stabilized option has been selected, however it is thought that the evaluation of the performance of LUVIMS for a spinning spacecraft can be relevant also for other small spinning satellites.