Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo), part of PRIME-1¶
IM-2 · landed · NASA payload
A quadrupole mass spectrometer that identifies light volatile gases (mass 1 to 100), such as water, near the lander. On PRIME-1 it was to analyze gases from TRIDENT's drill cuttings and from the lander itself. It is a commercial INFICON residual gas analyzer, ruggedized for spaceflight at NASA Kennedy.
PI: Jacqueline Quinn and Janine Captain (NASA Kennedy)
Built by: NASA Kennedy Space Center, with INFICON of Syracuse, New York (the commercial mass spectrometer) (NASA center)
| Technology | volatiles mass spectrometer (modified commercial instrument) |
| Moon Base need | DN-013 L, DN-007 L (NASA's Lunar Surface Technology page lists MSOLO under ISRU, a technology area, not a gap. Tying it to the data gaps on near-surface volatiles (DN-013 L) and water ice (DN-007 L) is the study's reading. MSolo's other task, measuring the gases a lander brings, bears on DN-013 L's worry that human activity releases gases.) |
| Route onto CLPS | STMD; MSolo first appeared as its own NASA payload on Astrobotic's Peregrine (January 2020 manifest); how it was chosen is not stated. It was then moved off Peregrine and flew instead as half of PRIME-1, the STMD Game Changing Development payload with its own CLPS task order to Intuitive Machines (October 2020).; 2020-10-16 |
| Timeline | first funding not in public sources (the sensor was first tested for Resource Prospector in 2015); first flight test not in public sources; selected 2020-01-22 (on Peregrine's manifest); flew under PRIME-1, awarded 2020-10-16; launch 2025-02-26; landing 2025-03-06 |
| On the Moon | partly operated |
| FO | none |
Flights before the Moon¶
None found in the public sources.
Heritage hardware¶
- commercial instrument: The sensor is INFICON's Transpector MPH residual gas analyzer. Kennedy added a ruggedized chassis, a calibration gas system, a contamination cover, a radiation-tolerant computer and its own software. NASA calls it 'ruggedized, proven' with field data from places like volcanoes; no source names a spaceflight of the commercial unit before the Moon.
"MSOLO is a ruggedized, proven mass spectrometer that has provided incredibly useful data from unforgiving places on Earth like volcanos"
— PRIME-1 Science - NASA Science"MSolo is a modified, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) system"
— NTRS 20240015183
- design heritage (Resource Prospector): Kennedy first tested the same commercial sensor in 2015 for Resource Prospector's RESOLVE/LAVA payload (proto-qualification vibration). The flight computer's software, ASTRA, was written for Resource Prospector, then the WAVE project, then MSolo. Resource Prospector was cancelled before flight.
"As a payload of Resource Prospector, it is necessary to determine the survivability of the mass spectrometer to proto-qualification level random vibration."
— NTRS 20160012024, INFICON Transpector MPH vibration test report, Sept 2015"in support of Resource Prospector, then Water Analysis and Volatile Extraction (WAVE), and now MSolo"
— TechPort project 97206, outcome
- an earlier unit (not flown): A first unit, MSolo-1, was finished and delivered to the lander provider by the end of 2020 for Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One. NASA then moved MSolo off Peregrine; whether the PRIME-1 unit is the same unit is not in public sources. Ground tests named for MSolo are thermal vacuum, vibration and regolith simulant tests.
"which has been officially delivered to the launch and landing provider"
— TechPort project 97206, outcome (MSolo-1, for Peregrine Mission One)"Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) - Kennedy Space Center (KSC)"
— TO2-AB Science Payloads - NASA Science, reallocated from TO2-AB
Funding before the lunar flight¶
- STMD Game Changing Development, PRIME-1 project (TechPort 116360). No amount in TechPort. (STMD GCD; FY2020-FY2025): amount not in public sources
"STMD’s Game Changing Development program funds PRIME-1."
— NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Land Water-Measuring Payload on the Moon - NASA
- KSC Center Independent R&D: the Space Hybrid Computer, MSolo's flight computer (TechPort 97206, FY2019-2020). No amount in TechPort. (KSC IRAD; 2019-2020): amount not in public sources
"The SHC is the primary computer for a completed KSC science payload known as MSolo-1"
— TechPort project 97206, outcome, closed out 2020-12-31
- NASA Kennedy purchase order to INFICON for mass spectrometer instruments and support (80KSC019P0030). Kennedy funded it during MSolo's build, but the record does not name MSolo; the link is the study's reading. (NASA contract (KSC); 2019-2022): $363,458
"INFICON MASS SPECTROMETER INSTRUMENTS AND SUPPORT SERVICES"
— USAspending.gov, award 80KSC019P0030, description; obligated 363458.0, 2019-06-11 to 2022-02-01, awarding and funding office NASA Kennedy
- NASA purchase of three ruggedized Transpector MPH analyzers and spares from INFICON (80NSSC18P3128). MSolo's base instrument is the Transpector MPH, but the record names neither MSolo nor the buying center; the link is the study's reading. (NASA contract (NSSC); 2018): $198,000
"3 100 AMU OPEN IS RUGGEDIZED TRANSPECTOR MPH"
— USAspending.gov, award 80NSSC18P3128, description; obligated 198000.0, 2018-08-30 to 2018-12-15
How it got onto CLPS¶
"MSolo will identify low-molecular weight volatiles."
— First Commercial Moon Delivery Assignments to Advance Artemis - NASA, 22 Jan 2020, Astrobotic payloads"are being reallocated to future lunar delivery missions"
— TO2-AB Science Payloads - NASA Science, MSolo listed at"STMD’s Game Changing Development program funds PRIME-1."
— NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Land Water-Measuring Payload on the Moon - NASA"NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in partnership with INFICON of Syracuse, New York, is developing the mass spectrometer."
— NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Land Water-Measuring Payload on the Moon - NASA
On the Moon¶
MSolo worked in transit and on the surface, but with the lander on its side there was no drilling to analyze. It was powered on three times on the Moon and took 43 scans. It saw only gases the mission brought: Earth air and water, and the lander's vented methane and oxygen. Its team says the spectra were good despite the landing, and that the flight validated the idea of a space-hardened commercial instrument. NASA has since manifested MSolo on IM-4.
"detected elements likely due to the gases emitted from the lander’s propulsion system"
— NASA Receives Some Data Before Intuitive Machines Ends Lunar Mission - NASA"researchers believe from the initial data that the gases detected were all anthropogenic"
— NASA’s Lunar Drill Technology Passes Tests on the Moon - NASA"MSolo was powered on 3 times, doing scans at 10 parts per amu, 0-90 m/z."
— NTRS 20260003150, page 19 (MSolo results, April 2026)"A COTS instrument, space hardened, can operate well in space and on the lunar surface."
— NTRS 20260003150, page 21"The mass spectrometer demonstrated its gas analysis capabilities in lunar conditions during Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission in 2025."
— NASA Selects Intuitive Machines to Deliver Artemis Science, Tech to Moon - NASA, IM-4 payloads
FO's role¶
Grade: none. No FO project, report or page names MSolo, INFICON or a mass spectrometer, and the instrument has no flight before the Moon in these sources. The study's earlier traceback grade (none found) stands. Its team saw Earth air in the unsealed sensor in flight; that is the kind of lesson a pre-CLPS flight might catch, but it is the study's remark, not the team's.
"No FO record or report names SCALPSS, ROLSES, LN-1, the retroreflectors,"
— earlier finding of this study (not a public source)"We seemed to be seeing air in"
— NTRS 20260003150, page 11
Who built it¶
"Lead Development Organization: INFICON of Syracuse, New York, in partnership with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida."
— NASA press kit, Commercial Lunar Payload Services IM-2 (Intuitive Machines-2) Lunar Mission"PI: [Dr. Jacqueline Quinn]"
— PRIME-1 Science - NASA Science, with Dr. Janine Captain, NASA Kennedy"The base instrument is the commercially available Transpector® MPH residual gas analyzer (RGA) from INFICON"
— NTRS 20240015183, Aguilar Ayala et al., VIPER's MSolo, 2025
Moon Base need¶
"MSOLO (mass spectrometer, operated on IM-2)"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: Lunar surface technology for the Moon Base, ISRU row"No community agreement on concentrations of lunar volatiles at the lunar south pole just"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-013 L: In situ measurements of the composition, distribution, and abundance of volatiles in the near-surface lunar south pole"potentially corrosive or toxic gases"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-013 L: In situ measurements of the composition, distribution, and abundance of volatiles in the near-surface lunar south pole"There are no ground truth measurements that characterize shallow bulk water ice on the lunar surface"
— Moon to Mars knowledge base: DN-007 L: In situ measurements of the horizontal and vertical distribution, abundance, and physical makeup of shallow bulk water ice
Open questions¶
- What MSolo cost, and what Kennedy paid INFICON for it: not in public sources. The two INFICON purchase orders listed are linked by topic and dates only.
- How MSolo was first chosen for Peregrine (January 2020) and why it was moved off: not in public sources.
- Is the PRIME-1 MSolo the MSolo-1 unit delivered for Peregrine? Not in public sources.
- Did any INFICON Transpector fly in space before IM-2? Not in public sources.