PDS: The Planetary Atmospheres Node
The NASA logo decal was installed on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. PITMS (pink circle) was located on the left hand side on the top of Deck D. PITMS is a partnership between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, The Open University (OU), NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA). NASA provided PITMS via the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. Photo credit: NASA/Isaac Watson
Description of the data.
The Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) was an ion trap mass spectrometer with a zenith-looking aperture. Neutral gas species that entered the aperture were trapped by the PITMS radiofrequency field and detected according to their mass-to-charge ratio. PITMS was operated in one of multiple Scan Functions that defined the parameters of the trapping and detection electronics. The PITMS goal was to monitor the tenuous near-surface lunar exosphere in response to natural (e.g., diurnal temperature cycle) and artificial (e.g., landing event, lander activities) stimuli.
The data extends from 2024-01-12T10:33:23 to 2024-01-15T13:25:19 and the products in this bundle contain the calibrated mass spectrum for each PITMS measurement. The spectrum is composed of m/z and ions (all scan functions) and background-subtracted partial pressure.
Useful Mission Documents
Archive Bundle Contents
Downloading the data collection
To retrieve the data access the Compressed Data File
Citing datasets for publication
PDS recommendations for citing data sets can be found here
The citation: Cohen.B.A. and Tucker,O.J. (2024). CLPS Task Order 2AB Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS) for Lunar Surface Volatiles, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17189/rd9h-9m17
