LUVIMS LUNAR UV AND IR MAPPING SPECTROMETER

A new imaging spectrometer particularly designed for the lunar mission MORO (Moon ORbiting Observatory) is presented. This spectrometer, nam ed LUVIMS (Lunar UV and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer), is characteriz ed by high performances-high spectral, high spatial resolution-being a t the same time small, light weight and has a low power consumption. A n imaging spectrometer, operating in the visible and infrared, is able to provide information about lunar mineralogical composition. By mean s 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 characterizatio n of the Moon's surface in terms of global mapping, identification of different material and their distribution, mineralogical analysis of d ifferent terrain observations with high spatial resolution added to hi gh spectral resolution can be the most powerful technique to have info rmation on the lunar material origin and evolution. The spectrometer h as been designed in order to work properly on either a tri-axis stabil ized or a spinning spacecraft. In fact MORO has being studied as a can didate mission for the third cycle of Medium size missions, M3, in the framework of ESA's Horizon 2000 scientific programme. During the asse ssment phase, parametric solutions have been evaluated, but it has bee n shown that LUVIMS can fulfil the scientific requirements in any of t he proposed spacecraft configurations. During phase A of the MORO miss ion the three-axis stabilized option has been selected, however it is thought that the evaluation of the performance of LUVIMS for a spinnin g spacecraft can be relevant also for other small spinning satellites. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd