Experimentelle und Analytische Planetologie
Combined LIPS/RAMAN spectrometer for planetary exploration
Planetary in-situ analysis is going to become one of the most important tools for exploring the accessible celestial
bodies. Chemical, mineralogical, structural, isotopic, and molecular information will provide stringent boundary
conditions for the origin and evolution of these bodies and hence of the solar system. The past showed some
unprecedented examples of operating in-situ analysis instruments and even rather complex instrument facilities are
at present underway. Although their capabilities are remarkable, these "first generation" instruments still suffer from
constraints in terms of size, mass, and operations for the accommodating systems. They pose restrictions in
particular on the most recently projected explorative missions such as ESA's EXOMARS mission that aims at large
operating radii of some kilometers or some tens of kilometers. Whereas the classical operational scenario was more
or less stationary, the high degree of mobility calls for a new type of instrumentation, which can be characterized as
follows:
- Short measurement duration: seconds instead of hours
- High sensitivity, high repetition rate, high reproducibility
- Low mass, size, and resource needs
- High flexibility with respect to type, shape, and size of sample material
- Robustness towards surface contamination.
Laser-Induced-Plasma-Spectrometry (LIPS) in combination with Raman spectroscopy has the potential to meet these requirements and to enable in-situ
elemental and mineralogical analyses with a new level of accuracy, performance, and operational flexibility. In the
EGS 2003 conference, the concept of a combined LIPS / Raman spectrometer has been introduced. With the work
on a definition study for such an instrument terminated, the instrument has been proposed for ESA's ExoMars
mission, passing the scientific peer review with a very positive result. This contribution describes the final results of
the LIPS/Raman definition study, as well as the accommodation perspectives on different types of missions.
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