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An Overview of the LADEE Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrometer

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Abstract

The Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrometer (UVS) instrument, which flew on the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft (SC), was one of three science instruments used to characterize the lunar exosphere. UVS is a point spectrograph operating between 230–810 nm and used its two optical apertures to make observations of the exosphere just above the surface at a range of local times and altitudes, as well as making solar occultation measurements at the lunar sunrise terminator. The instrument was led out of NASA Ames Research Center with primary hardware being provided by Draper Laboratories. Final instrument integration, testing and operations were performed at NASA Ames. Over the course of the 140-day LADEE mission UVS acquired more than 1 million spectra, providing a unique data set for lunar exosphere gasses and dust.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the LADEE Mission and to all the people who made UVS and flight operations possible. We also appreciate the two reviewers who provided excellent feedback which greatly improved the quality of this paper. This effort was supported by the NASA Science Mission Directorate Lunar Quest Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA, USA

    Anthony Colaprete, Kara Vargo, Mark Shirley, Diane Wooden, John Karcz & Amanda Cook

  2. Draper Laboratory, Tampa, FL, USA

    Dave Landis

  3. University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Brendan Hermalyn

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  1. Anthony Colaprete
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  2. Kara Vargo
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  3. Mark Shirley
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Correspondence to Anthony Colaprete.

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Colaprete, A., Vargo, K., Shirley, M. et al. An Overview of the LADEE Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrometer. Space Sci Rev 185, 63–91 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-014-0112-0

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