Ocean Optics - Inventor of the World's First Miniature Spectrometer
Ocean Optics - Inventor of the World's First Miniature Spectrometer
 

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Ocean Optics - Inventor of the World's First Miniature Spectrometer

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The Challenge
NASA needed a way to determine if water was present within the composition of the Earth's Moon. In 1999, it was revealed that a form of concentrated hydrogen was detected in the permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles. From there, NASA's Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission was formed to determine if water and other substances are present on the moon.

To accomplish this, NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on June 18, 2009 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This module is sheperded by an Atlas V's Centaur upper stage rocket.

The LCROSS mission will send a rocket crashing into the moon at more than twice the speed of a bullet -- in order to study the resulting ejecta cloud. The impact is expected to generate a 2.2 million-pound plume of matter which will be analyzed for the presence of water and other compounds.

The LCROSS payload includes two near-infrared spectrometers, a visible light spectrometer, two mid-infrared cameras, two near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer. These particular instruments were chosen by NASA to provide a variety of analysis of the debris plume created by the Centaur's impact.

How We Fit In
In partnership with Aurora Design and Technology, Ocean Optics developed the modified visible spectrometers on the LCROSS payload. Our QE65000 scientific-grade spectrometer was modified - with the guidance of Dr. Dave Landis - to survive the harsh conditions of the lunar mission and withstand extreme temperature ranges as well as the shock and vibration of impact. Further, several electronics modifications were made to accommodate conversion of the communication ports from USB to RS-422.

The finished product is what we like to call ALICE as a nod to the old television comedy, The Honeymooners.

What We Used

  • Ocean Optics QE65000 Scientific Grade Spectrometer - Modified
  • Visible (263-650 nm) emission and reflectance spectrometry of vapor plume and ejecta cloud
  • Measure lunar grain properties
  • Measure emission H20 vapor dissociation, OH (308 nm_ and H20+ (619 nm) fluorescence

Media

Learn More
We hope you'll take some time to explore the following links for more information about the LCROSS mission and its progress. Here's some links to get you started:

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