Combined Raman spectrometer/laser-induced breakdown spectrometer for the next ESA mission to Mars

Abstract

Among the different instruments that have been pre-selected to be on-board the Pasteur payload on ExoMars is the Raman/laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument. Raman spectroscopy and LIBS will be integrated into a single instrument sharing many hardware commonalities.

An international team under the lead of TNO has been gathered to produce a design concept for a combined Raman spectrometer/LIBS elegant bread-board (EBB). The instrument is based on a specially designed, extremely compact, spectrometer with high resolution over a large wavelength range, suitable for both Raman spectroscopy and LIBS measurements. Low mass, size and power consumption are the main drivers of the instrument's design concept.

In this paper, science objectives for the combined instrument are detailed. Background information on Raman spectroscopy and LIBS are presented, focussing on the synergy of these two techniques. In the last section, the instrument concept resulting from the assessment of the feasibility of the combined Raman/LIBS EBB is presented.