Innovative Instrumentation
APL’s long heritage of space technology innovation reaches back six decades, and includes building more than 300 specialized instruments. APL instruments have provided the first images of Saturn’s magnetic field; contributed to the discovery of ancient water across Mars, delivered the first close-up views of Pluto and its moons; and helped determine when humankind – through Voyager 1 – left the solar system for the first time.
Optical Instruments
APL optical instruments range from telescopic cameras that deliver high-resolution images of worlds across the solar system, to imaging spectrometers that can “read” hundreds of colors in reflected sunlight to detect the mineral makeup of a planet’s surface.
LORRI Pluto, Kuiper Belt Objects, and Comets
L’LORRI Asteroids
GUVI Earth
MISE Outer Moons
EIS Outer Moons
DRACO Asteroids
CRISM Terrestrial Planets
Particle Instruments
APL develops devices – like highly sensitive mass spectrometers – that can determine a charged particle’s elemental composition by measuring how long it takes the particle to fly through the instrument.
ULEIS Sun and Solar Wind
IMAP-Ultra Interstellar Medium
SIS Sun and Solar Wind
PEPSSI Pluto, Kuiper Belt Objects, and Comets
PIMS Giant Planets
JoEE/JENI Outer Moons
LECP Sun and Solar Wind
JEDI Giant Planets
EPI-Lo Sun and Solar Wind
EPD-EIS Earth
EPAM Sun and Solar Wind
Gamma-Ray and Neutron Instruments
Gamma-ray spectroscopy can infer composition tens of inches beneath a planetary body, either remotely from orbit or while sitting directly on the surface, and quantify the elements present throughout that depth.
MEGANE Terrestrial Planets
Psyche GRNS Asteroids
DraGNS Outer Moons
Other Instruments
APL develops radar and other sensors to map surfaces and assess conditions on and above our Moon and other worlds.