Mars Mineralogical Spectrometer (MMS) on the Tianwen-1 Mission
Zhiping He, Rui Xu, Chunlai Li, Liyin Yuan, Chengyu Liu, Gang Lv, Jian Jin, Jianan Xie, Chuifeng Kong, Feifei Li, Xiaowen Chen, Rong Wang, Sheng Xu, Wei Pan, Jindong Wu, Changkun Li, Tianhong Wang, Haijun Jin, Hourui Chen, Jun Qiu, Jianyu Wang
Abstract
Abstract The Mars Mineralogical Spectrometer (MMS) is a hyperspectral imager onboard the Mars orbiter of Tianwen-1, China’s first Mars exploration mission. MMS consists of 4 subassemblies: an Optical Sensor Unit (OSU), an Electronics Unit (EU), a Calibration Unit (CU), and a Thermal Control Accessories (TCA). With a 0.5 mrad IFOV and a 416-sample cell array for nadir observation, MMS can map the spectral and spatial information of the Martian surface through push-broom scanning, and it can transmit scientific data by hyperspectral mode or multispectral imaging mode through spatial and spectral combination. MMS can perform multi-sample hyperspectral imaging at full spectral resolution (0.379–1.076 μm with 2.73 nm/band, 1.033–3.425 μm at 7.5 nm/band, both spectral ranges at 2.1 km/pixel at 265 km). For the wavelength region of interest, the multispectral mapping mode provides additional options, a subset of 72 bands that are binned to minimum pixel footprints of 265 m/pixel. The major objective of the MMS is to analyze the compositions and distributions of the minerals on Martian surface, in order to characterize its evolution.