The Neutral Mass Spectrometer on the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer Mission.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Mahaffy, Paul; Richard Hodges, R.; Benna, Mehdi; King, Todd; Arvey, Robert; Barciniak, Michael; Bendt, Mirl; Carigan, Daniel; Errigo, Therese; Harpold, Daniel; Holmes, Vincent; Johnson, Christopher; Kellogg, James; Kimvilakani, Patrick; Lefavor, Matthew; Hengemihle, Jerome; Jaeger, Ferzan; Lyness, Eric; Maurer, John; Nguyen, Daniel
- Source
- Space Science Reviews. Dec2014, Vol. 185 Issue 1-4, p27-61. 35p.
- Subject
- *MASS spectrometers
*SPACE vehicles
*LUNAR dust
*EXPLORER satellites
*LUNAR surface
LUNAR atmosphere
- Language
- ISSN
- 0038-6308
The Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS) of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) Mission is designed to measure the composition and variability of the tenuous lunar atmosphere. The NMS complements two other instruments on the LADEE spacecraft designed to secure spectroscopic measurements of lunar composition and in situ measurement of lunar dust over the course of a 100-day mission in order to sample multiple lunation periods. The NMS utilizes a dual ion source designed to measure both surface reactive and inert species and a quadrupole analyzer. The NMS is expected to secure time resolved measurements of helium and argon and determine abundance or upper limits for many other species either sputtered or thermally evolved from the lunar surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]