ProSPA: a space lab for the Moon

ProSPA is a very powerful and flexible scientific tool that contains equipment similar to what one would find in a laboratory on Earth specialising in studying lunar samples or meteorites.

The Open University in the UK has taken state of-the-art analytical techniques, and crammed them into an automated miniaturised laboratory to provide scientists and engineers with a tool they can use to study fresh lunar samples collected by the drill.  

This space lab measures the nature and abundance of lunar volatile material, water ice for example, to better understand its history and the potential of those volatiles as resources.