A Miniature Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (Mini-LIBS) for Lunar Surface Exploration
- Paper number
IAC-10.A3.2A.4
- Author
Mr. A.S. Laxmiprasad, Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS)-ISRO, India
- Coauthor
Mr. Adwaita Goswami, Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS)-ISRO, India
- Coauthor
Dr. M.V.H. RAO, Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS)-ISRO, India
- Coauthor
Mr. K.A. Lohar, Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS)-ISRO, India
- Coauthor
Mr. V.L.N. Sridhar Raja, Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS)-ISRO, India
- Year
2010
- Abstract
Owing to its simplicity and versatility, LIBS in recent times, has proved to be a powerful laser-based analytical technique and being proposed more and more for in-situ detection of geological samples for use on landers or rovers to Mars, Moon and for other space applications. Existing LIBS instruments are not compact enough for space applications. The work presented here is part of a broader project that aims to demonstrate the applicability of miniature LIBS unit as an analytical tool for the investigation of lunar surface. A prototype LIBS in-situ instrument was conceptualized and is proposed on rover for India’s next Moon Mission, Chandrayaan-II with the motive of qualitative and quantitative analysis of elemental abundances. This instrument was conceptualized by considering the space constraints such as size, weight, power, available LTSD (Lens-To-Surface-Distance) and environmental effects. Here in-situ corresponds to distances on the order of 200 mm in contrast to stand-off analysis at distance of many meters. A flight in-situ LIBS instrument is expected to be <1.0 kg and consume < 5W. This paper will shed light on all those issues and iterations that we had gone through in course of the realization of LIBS prototype instrument conceptualization. Theoretical computations employing Saha equations were carried out to further investigate the feasibility of the optimized instrument. In addition to the instrument’s realization, to demonstrate the feasibility of LIBS on moon a better knowledge of the plasma lifetime and pressure influence on emission signal under lunar atmospheric conditions is a must. With the optimized instrument specifications few experimental trails have been performed on lunar soil simulant (JSC-1A) by employing a 3 mJ, 10 ns pulses of 1064 nm photons that are focused to <50 micron diameter on the sample to produce a brief plasma of ablated target material. Results from the first-cut experimental trails have assured the applicability and feasibility of LIBS for in situ and real-time measurement of elements at the low pressure characteristics of the moon.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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