If you ask me, a NASA effort to create a handheld mass spectrometer is just another step toward an actual "Tricorder"; a small computerized scanning device that links to a central data base for analysis and information. (Trekkies everywhere know exactly what I'm talking about- Sorry for the rest of you.)
All the essential parts have almost been gathered: metal detection, Geiger counter, wireless connectivity, infra-red and ultraviolet detection--add a mass spectrometer, which is used to analyze the air we breathe, and you have your compact, multi-use, computerized scanning device that links to a central data base.
But if it walks like a Tricorder, acts like a Tricorder, and works like a Tricorder, can't they just call it a Tri-corder? After all, that's a lot cooler name than miniaturized mass spectrometer.
Of course knowing those crazy NASA scientists, they'll end up calling it something wild like---Miniaturized Mass Spectrometer....
NASA eyes establishing orbiting lunar outpost
12 years ago
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