Characterisation of the LUVMI Lunar Volatiles Scout Instrument

Sheridan, Simon; Barber, Simeon; Biswas, Janos; Regaanaz, Mattia and Richter, Lutz (2020). Characterisation of the LUVMI Lunar Volatiles Scout Instrument. In: EPSC2020, 21 Sep - 9 Oct 2020, Virtual meeting.

URL: https://www.epsc2020.eu/

Abstract

Recent remote sensing missions have established the presence of water-ice in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) located at the lunar poles, offering the possibility of a source of material for future In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU). ISRU offers the opportunity to make use of locally available resources and to potentially reduce the costs associated with transporting materials such as water, hydrogen and oxygen to the lunar surface. The LUVMI-X rover, is an innovative, low mass, mobile robotic payload designed specifically for operations at Polar regions of the Moon with a range of 5 km from its lander and will offer the opportunity to perform volatile prospecting for potential lunar resources. We discuss the LUVMI Volatiles Sampler (VS) and Volatiles Analyser (VA), known collectively as the Lunar Volatiles Scout (LVS) instrument, that has been developed and validated up to technology readiness level (TRL) 5-6.