NSSDCA ID: 2014-076H-04
Mission Name: MASCOTMicrOmega is a near-infrared hyperspectral microscope designed to characterize the in situ texture and mineralogical composition of the surface of asteroid 162173 Ryugu. The spectromicroscope also provides ground truth for orbital measurements.
MicrOmega consists of an illumination unit and an imaging unit. The illumination unit is made of a bright white lamp and an acousto-optic tunable filter based dispersive system as the monochromator. The imaging unit consists of optics that yield 1.2 magnification and a 500 x 250 pixel HgCdTe detector array with a pixel size of 25-micron and a spectral range of 0.9 - 3.7 micron. Only the central 125 x 128 pixel area of the array is used for this experiment, yielding a field of view of 3.2 x 3.2 millimeter. During operation, the sample is sequentially illuminated over the spectral domain from 0.99 micron up to 3.65 micron and imaged onto the detector array. The resulting 3-dimensional image cube is built in about 25 min for the baseline case of 320 spectral channels at a 20/cm spectral sampling, including an 8-min initialization and cool down of the detector. The MicrOmega is mounted inside the payload compartment of the MASCOT lander.
Mass: 1.9 kg
Questions and comments about this experiment can be directed to: Dr. David R. Williams
Name | Role | Original Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Dr. Jean-Pierre Bibring | Principal Investigator | Institut d Astrophysique Spatiale | jean-pierre.bibring@ias.u-psud.fr |