LiRS combined LIBS, Raman and Fluorescence Astrobiology Payload for potential Europa Lander
Abstract
The water moons Europa and Enceladus are of great scientific interest as their ice-covered oceans may shelter evidence of prior or current life. Active geysers allow some interchange of material between the ice encrusted oceans and the surface. The LiRS combined LIBS and Raman Spectrometer elegantly integrates laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy using 1064 nm excitation for elemental composition, deep UV (DUV) Raman using 248.6 nm excitation to provide information on the molecular bonding structure of the elements, fluorescence for the ppm sensitive detection of the presence of organics, and a bore-sighted colour micro-imager for complementary information on the sample morphology. This paper discusses the preliminary configuration of LiRS for the potential NASA Europa lander.
- Publication:
-
EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019
- Pub Date:
- September 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019EPSC...13.1946K