VIPER’s Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) Prepared For Packing

The Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) for NASA’s Volatile Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission is prepared for packing inside a laboratory in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 21, 2023.

MSolo will be shipped to Johnson Space Center in Houston for integration into VIPER. 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 will be part of NASA’s first Commercial Lunar Payload Delivery Service (CLPS) mission where under the Artemis program, commercial deliveries will be used to perform science experiments, test technologies, and demonstrate capabilities to help NASA explore the Moon and prepare for human missions.

VIPER is scheduled to be delivered to the Moon’s South Pole in late 2024 by Astrobotic’s Griffin lander as part of the CLPS initiative.

NASA ID: KSC-20230221-PH-KLS01_0016 larger image