Planetary Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTS) has a long history at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Rudy Hanel developed a series of such instruments for Earth, Mars and the two Voyager spacecraft. More recently as part of the Cassini mission, the CIRS (Composite Infrared Spectrometer) FTS was launched in 1997 for the 2000-2001 Jupiter flyby and the 2004-2008+ Saturn tour. At about 40 kg, CIRS is both too heavy and too light for future planetary missions. It is too heavy for future Discovery and New Frontier missions, where the emphasis is on low-mass, low-power instrumentation. On the other hand, CIRS could be heavier to take full advantage of future Prometheus missions such as JIMO. Here we discuss future development of CIRS-like FTS’s for both Discovery/New Frontier and for Prometheus flight opportunities. We also briefly discuss possible applications in the Moon/Mars exploration initiative.

Date Published: 30 December 2004
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 5660, Instruments, Science, and Methods for Geospace and Planetary Remote Sensing, (30 December 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.579774

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5660:
Instruments, Science, and Methods for Geospace and Planetary Remote Sensing
Carl A. Nardell; Paul G. Lucey; Jeng-Hwa Yee; James B. Garvin, Editor(s)