Engineers work on the High-Resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM³) for NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft in a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, shortly after the instrument is delivered in December 2022 Was. The big silver net was wrapped. In the center of the image is the transparent plastic radiator that will maintain the temperature of the instrument while it is in space. The HVM³ is an imaging spectrometer that was developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. It was shipped from JPL to Lockheed Martin Space, where it was integrated with the spacecraft.
HVM³ is one of two instruments the mission will use to detect water on the lunar surface and determine its abundance, location, form and how it changes over time. Lunar Trailblazer was selected in 2019 under NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program.
The Lunar Trailblazer mission is managed by JPL and its science investigations are led by Caltech in Pasadena, California. Managed for NASA by Caltech, JPL provides systems engineering, mission assurance, the HVM³ instrument, as well as navigation. Lockheed Martin Space provided the spacecraft and integrated the flight systems under contract with Caltech.
The SIMPLEx mission investigation is managed by the Planetary Mission Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of the Discovery Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The program investigates space science in the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
For more information about Lunar Trailblazer, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/lunar-trailblazer