European Space Agency

European Mars Science and Exploration Conference: Mars Express & ExoMars

ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 12 - 16 November, 2007

THE COMBINED RAMAN SPECTROMETER/ LASER-INDUCED BREAKDOWN

SPECTROMETER ELEGANT BREADBOARD B. Ahlers1, G. Bazalgette Courrèges-Lacoste

1. E.

Boslooper1,

1TNO Science and Industry, Space and Science, Stieltjesweg 1, 2600 AD Delft, The Netherlands.

berit.ahlers@tno.nl.

Abstract: Amongst the different instruments that

have been pre-selected to be accommodated on-

board the Pasteur payload of the ExoMars rover is a

spectrometer for combined Raman and Laser

Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). It is

regarded as a fundamental, next-generation

instrument for organic, mineralogical and elemental

characterization of Martian soil and rock samples.

Raman spectroscopy and LIBS will be integrated

into a single instrument sharing many hardware

commonalities [1]. For science objectives, the

synergy is evident: the Raman spectrometer is

dedicated to molecular analysis of organics and

minerals; the LIBS provides information on the

sample’s elemental composition.

An international team under the lead of TNO has

been gathered to design, build and test an Elegant

Bread-Board (EBB) of the combined Raman/ LIBS

instrument. Low mass, size and resource usage were

the main drivers of the instrument’s design concept.

Heart of the instrument is a specifically designed,

extremely compact, spectrometer with high

resolution over a large wavelength range, suitable

for both Raman spectroscopy and LIBS

measurements.

Apart from the previously mentioned

spectrometer, the breadboard includes lasers,

illumination and imaging optics as well as fibre

optics for light transfer. Measurements will be made

in two different contexts: outside the rover

laboratory (using the rover’s robotic arm) and inside

the rover laboratory. Optionally a microscope/

close-up imager could be integrated in the design

concept.

A summary of the functional and environmental

requirements together with a description of the

optical design and its performance are described in

[2]. The combined Raman/ LIBS EBB realisation

and first test results are presented.

References: [1] Bazalgette Courrèges-Lacoste, G., B.

Ahlers and F. Rull Pérez, Combined Raman spectrometer/

laser-induced breakdown spectrometer for the next ESA

mission to Mars (2007) in press, Spectrochimica Acta

Part A. [2] Escudero Sanz, I., B. Ahlers and G. Bazalgette

Courrèges-Lacoste, Optical design of a combined Raman-

LIBS spectroscopy instrument for the ESA ExoMars

mission (2007) submitted, Optical Engineering.