Instrument Information
IDENTIFIER urn:nasa:pds:context:instrument:mascs.mess::1.2
NAME Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer for MESSENGER
TYPE Spectrometer
DESCRIPTION The Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) on MESSENGER is comprised of a small Cassegrain telescope with a 257-mm effective focal length and a 50-mm aperture that simultaneously feeds both an UltraViolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVVS) and a Visible and Infrared Spectrograph (VIRS). MASCS will investigate Mercury's exosphere by measuring altitude profiles of known species as well as searching for previously undetected species. MASCS will investigate the mineralogical composition of the surface of Mercury by obtaining maps of surface reflectance spectra on spatial scales of 5 km. UVVS is a scanning grating, Ebert-Fastie monochromator with a focal length of 125-mm and is equipped with three photomultiplier tube detectors. The three detectors cover the wavelength ranges of the far ultraviolet (115-180 nm), middle ultraviolet (160-320 nm), and visible (250-600 nm) with an average spectral resolution of 0.6 nm. VIRS is a fixed concave grating spectrograph with a 210-mm focal length and a resolution of 5 nm. Together, the VIRS and UVVS detectors will measure surface reflectance at middle ultraviolet to visible to near infrared wavelengths to search for ferrous bearing minerals, Fe- Ti bearing phases, and ferrous iron.
MODEL IDENTIFIER
NAIF INSTRUMENT IDENTIFIER
SERIAL NUMBER not applicable
REFERENCES McClintock, W.E., and M.R. Lankton, The Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer for the MESSENGER mission, Space Science Reviews, 131, 481-521, 2007.