Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida are preparing the Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations (MSolo) for launch inside the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 25, 2020. MSolo is a commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer modified to work in space and it will help analyze the chemical makeup of landing sites on the Moon, as well as study water on the lunar surface. MSolo hardware is a payload for a robotic mission to the Moon as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) launching to exploring Lacus Mortis, a large crater on the near side of the Moon in 2021. A future mission will send a mobile robot named the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) to the Moon to prospect for water. VIPER will have several instruments that will allow it to detect and sample water including MSolo, the Neutron Spectrometer System, the Near Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System and The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain (TRIDENT).
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NASA ID
KSC-20200925-PH-GEB01_0043
Date Created
September 25, 2020
Center
KSC
Media Type
image
Photographer
NASA/Glenn Benson
Location
SSPF
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe (left) congratulates James W. Kennedy (right) before a group of KSC employees assembled in the KSC Training Auditorium. The occasion is the announcement of Kennedy as the next director of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Kennedy has served as KSC's deputy director since November 2002. He will succeed KSC Director Roy D. Bridges, who was appointed on June 13 to lead NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
Jun 26, 2003
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight William F. Readdy addresses a group of KSC employees assembled in the KSC Training Auditorium. The occasion is the announcement of James W. Kennedy as the next director of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Kennedy has served as KSC's deputy director since November 2002. He will succeed KSC Director Roy D. Bridges, who was appointed on June 13 to lead NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
Jun 26, 2003
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - KSC Deputy Director James W. Kennedy (left) and KSC Director Roy D. Bridges shake hands before a group of KSC employees assembled in the KSC Training Auditorium. The occasion is the announcement of Kennedy as the next director of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Kennedy has served as KSC's deputy director since November 2002. He will succeed Bridges, who was appointed on June 13 to lead NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
Jun 26, 2003
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - KSC Deputy Director James W. Kennedy addresses a group of KSC employees assembled in the KSC Training Auditorium, as KSC Director Roy D. Bridges looks on (right). The occasion is the announcement of Kennedy as the next director of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Kennedy has served as KSC's deputy director since November 2002. He will succeed Bridges, who was appointed on June 13 to lead NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
Jun 26, 2003