P033-0006
Emirates Mars Mission 2020: Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) Overview

Thursday, 10 December 2020
Poster
Eman Saeed Altunaiji, Mohamed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Khalid Mohammad Badri SR, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Christopher S Edwards, Northern Arizona University, Astronomy and Planetary Science, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, Michael D Smith, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, Philip R Christensen, Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe, AZ, United States, Suhail AlMheiri, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Heather Reed, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, United States and EMIRS Team
Abstract:
The Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS) is one of three scientific instruments aboard the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) spacecraft named "Hope". EMM launched in July 2020 and is designed to explore the diurnal and seasonal dynamics of the Martian atmosphere on a global scale. EMM’s Hope Probe has three scientific instruments on board; two of the instruments, the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) and Emirates Mars Infrared Spectrometer (EMIRS), will study the lower atmosphere and the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EMUS) will make complementary observations of the upper atmosphere, enabling important links between the lower atmospheric dynamics and the thermosphere and exosphere of the planet to be explored.

The EMIRS instrument is an interferometric thermal infrared spectrometer developed by Arizona State University (ASU) and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). It builds on a long heritage of thermal infrared spectrometers designed, built, and managed by ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility.

Comparing EMIRS to its heritage line, it has enabled a relatively small (50x30x30cm), modest mass (~17kg) and relatively low power requirements (21W) without sacrificing measurement performance and reliability. EMIRS instrument collects spectral data from 6-40+ µm at 5 and 10 cm-1 spectral sampling, which is enabled by a Chemical Vapor-Deposited (CVD) diamond beam splitter and digital interferometer control electronics. This instrument utilizes DLaTGS detectors and a scan mirror that enables it to make high-precision infrared radiance measurements over a Martian hemisphere in ~30 minutes. The EMIRS instrument performance, spectral coverage, and spatial sampling are optimized to capture the integrated, lower and middle atmospheric dynamics, collecting ~60 observations per week (~20 images per orbit) at a resolution of ~100-300 km/pixel.

EMIRS has passed all its test performances and has been successfully integrated to the Hope observatory which will reach Mars by February 2021. The instrument will contribute key measurements to the scientific objectives of EMM and will provide a new view of the Martian lower and middle atmosphere, capturing the sub-seasonal and diurnal evolution of key atmospheric constituents over the entire globe.

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