Calibration and Performance of the High Resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Map

This article reports on the initial calibration and performance of the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3) slated for launch onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Lunar Trailblazer mission. HVM3 is an imaging spectrometer measuring the 600-3600 nm interval with approximately 77 m ground sampling and 10 nm spectral sampling. The mission aims to understand the form and abundance of volatiles across the lunar surface by measuring the distinct absorptions of molecular H2O, water ice, and OH/hydroxl while controlling for thermal effects. HVM3 has been assembled, tested and calibrated in preparation for launch. We review the HVM3 design, calibration process, results, and implications for Lunar Trailblazer science goals. We find HVM3's radiometric is sensitivity sufficient to confidently measure 1% differences in absorption band strengths under direct solar illumination. It can discriminate different species of volatile absorptions at irradiances as low as 1 W m-2, which should be sufficient to measure a significant fraction of the moon's Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) via terrain-scattered illumination.