Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer - Instruments

Instruments

LADEE carries three science instruments and a technology demonstration.

The science payload consists of:

  • Neutral Mass Spectrometer (NMS), which will perform in situ measurements of exospheric species. The instrument has heritage from the SAM instrument on MSL.
  • UV-Vis Spectrometer (UVS), which will measure both the dust and atmosphere. The instrument has heritage from the UV-Vis spectrometer on the LCROSS mission.
  • Lunar Dust EXperiment (LDEX), which will directly measure dust. The instrument has heritage from instruments on Galileo, Ulysses and Cassini.

The technology demonstration is for optical communication. The Lunar Laser Com Demo (LLCD) will test a new method of communicating with spacecraft that will dramatically increase the rate of data return.

Read more about this topic:  Lunar Atmosphere And Dust Environment Explorer

Famous quotes containing the word instruments:

    I lay my eternal curse on whomsoever shall now or at any time hereafter make schoolbooks of my works and make me hated as Shakespeare is hated. My plays were not designed as instruments of torture. All the schools that lust after them get this answer, and will never get any other.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest.
    William Pitt, The Elder, Lord Chatham (1708–1778)

    Being the dependents of the general government, and looking to its treasury as the source of all their emoluments, the state officers, under whatever names they might pass and by whatever forms their duties might be prescribed, would in effect be the mere stipendiaries and instruments of the central power.
    Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)