The near infrared volatiles spectrometer system (nirvss) is an instrument package designed to acquire imaging and spectral data of targets within the lunar permanently shaded regions (psrs). At its…

Planetary Science Institute was awarded a $1.83M cooperative agreement by NASA (through its Shared Services Center) on March 20, 2020, to support the development and operations of the Near Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System (NIRVSS). NIRVSS is a scientific instrument package designed to acquire imaging and spectral data from lunar permanently shaded regions using a monochromatic imager and spectrometer covering wavelengths from 1.3 to 4 micrometers. Three flight versions of the instrument are scheduled to deploy to the Moon as payloads on the Astrobotics lander, CL19 lander, and the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) on launches planned for 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively. The contract includes no set-aside designation and carries a completion date of September 30, 2026.

Under this award, PSI will provide critical support services including developing data analysis tools for interpreting NIRVSS data, conducting data analysis and interpretation activities, and preparing NIRVSS datasets for release through NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS). This work is performed at PSI's primary location in Tucson, Arizona, leveraging the institute's established expertise in planetary science research, spacecraft instrument support, and scientific data management for NASA missions.

The near infrared volatiles spectrometer system (nirvss) is an instrument package designed to acquire imaging and spectral data of targets within the lunar permanently shaded regions (psrs). At its core, the instrument consists of a monochromatic imager and a spectrometer that covers the wavelength range of 1.3 m to 4 m at a spectral resolution of 15 to 30 NM. The imager uses a set of color leds to illuminate the target at different wavelengths, whereas a tungsten lamp illuminates the target for the spectrometer. Three versions of this instrument are expected to fly to the moon as payloads on the astrobotics lander, on CL19, and on the volatiles investigating polar exploration rover (viper), to be launched on 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively. We propose here to support the development and operations of nirvss by: 1) developing data analysis tools to use in the interpretation of nirvss data. 2) supporting data analysis and interpretation. 3) preparing the data for release with the PDS.