Advanced Space Instruments

nstruments are the key components of almost all space missions. They monitor the environment at Earth, observe other planets, and gather intelligence information, providing these data to scientists and analysts on the ground. APL has had a long history of providing innovative space instruments for in situ and remote sensing observations for both DoD and NASA. Future missions will require instruments that simultaneously achieve higher performance, smaller size, lower power, and lower cost. Some will require new types of instruments to make measurements that have so far not been made from space. To meet these challenges, APL has been developing several new instruments, including an advanced miniature scientific imager, a miniature energetic ion composition instrument, and a laser ablation mass spectrometer. These instruments employ very large-scale integrated circuits, new packaging techniques, and entirely new means for making some types of measurements. (Keywords: Advanced instrumentation, Advanced technology, Miniaturization, Spaceborne instruments, Spectrometers.) I