VESPEr: Vapor Experiment for Space and Planetary Exploration

VESPEr is a low-SWaP instrument for atmospheric vapor measurements on Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) missions to Mars and other planets. VESPEr leverages the design of the Contamination Monitoring Package (CMP) of the SAGE III/ISS instrument operating in orbit since 2017. Prior efforts revealed the need to experimentally demonstrate the instrument’s performance under various planetary atmospheric conditions. Thus, the next step is to test VESPEr in a simulation chamber, which will be constructed as part of this effort. The proposed chamber will enable simulating the temperatures and compositions for the atmospheres of Mars, Titan, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. By the end of the proposed effort, the chamber will raise the sensor component TRL=6 for EDL applications, and the instrument's system-level TRL to TRL=4. The chamber will subsequently be used to raise the TRL of VESPEr and other instruments to TRL=6.

The VESPEr instrument will enable resources survey and safety monitoring for human exploration of Mars as well as scientific measurements for robotic missions to Mars and elsewhere. VESPEr will sense water vapor concentrations in Mars atmosphere to guide searches for any source of water. Such measurements will also be important for meteorological monitoring and to understand the hydrological cycle on Mars. In addition, VESPEr will also be sensitive to any volatile contamination that may be introduced by thruster plumes and other anthropogenic off-gassing materials, which will enable safety monitoring for human activities as well as understanding the impact of human/robotic exploration activities on Mars. Furthermore, VESPEr will also allow measuring the concentrations of cloud-forming species in Saturn and Uranus, which are future targets of atmospheric entry probes recommended by the planetary decadal survey.

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