USGS Spectroscopy Lab - Spacecraft Missions

Spacecraft Missions

http://speclab.cr.usgs.gov

USGS Spectroscopy Lab personnel are involved with NASA planetary spacecraft missions. Dr. Roger Clark is a team mamber on the Cassini Mission to Saturn, Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), a currently active mission, a Co-Investigator on the Chandrayaan-1, Moon Mineralogy Mapper, mission complete, a participating scientist on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) currently orbiting Mars, a Co-Investigator on the Mars Global Surveyor, Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) (mission complete), and a science adjunct on the Galileo, Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) now orbiting Jupiter (mission complete). Each of these instruments is an imaging spectrometer.

The pages below describe the spectral mapping part of the missions and include results from the instruments as they become available and have links to the spacecraft home pages and additional information.

CURRENT MISSIONS:

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Cassini Mission to Saturn

Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan, launched October 15, 1997, has been orbiting Saturn since July 2004, having flown by Venus (April 26, 1998 and again on June 24, 1999) and by the Earth (August 17 1999 at 7:28pm MDT). Arrival at Saturn was July 1, 2004 (UT), the evening of June 30, 2004 in the US. Cassini is now in extended mission and its mission will continue into 2017.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

MRO and the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), continues to map mineralogy in the MRO extended mission. CRISM Team home page.

PAST MISSIONS:

Chandrayaan-1

Launched in 2008, Chandrayaan-1 completed its mission in 2009 with the co-discovery of water adsorbed in the rocks and minerals exposed to sunlight in the lunar surface.

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