2023-11-09 23:29:28
The LIMS is an instrument for analyzing samples of different types. It uses a pulsed laser system. The laser pulses are focused and directed at a scientifically interesting sample, and each pulse peels off a small layer of it. Each of these laser pulses detaches a small layer from the sample and some of the detached material is positively charged. “These positively charged particles are sent back into the system, where the chemical composition is measured. This means that we measure chemical elements and their isotopes, which in particular allow us to understand chemical and physical processes on the Moon,” explains Andreas Riedo, responsible for LIMS project management at the Bern Institute of Physics.
The University already present on the moon with Apollo 11
The LIMS will be installed on a lunar landing platform in the south polar region of the Moon. According to Andreas Riedo, “this region is particularly interesting because certain elements are present there. Their isotopes allow us to determine the age of materials and therefore to date geological processes. “We can thus collect a lot of information on site that might only have been generated in laboratories on Earth,” specifies the researcher, quoted in the press release. “What’s more, no one before us has ever used this measurement technology on a space mission,” he says.
In the long term, the LIMS instrument might also be considered for future space exploration missions dedicated to the detection of life, for example in the atmosphere of Venus, on Mars and on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The development of this LIMS system began more than 20 years ago.
The University of Bern had already sent an instrument to the Moon, during the first NASA mission to land there, on July 21, 1969, she recalls. Buzz Aldrin, the second man following Neil Armstrong to set foot on the Earth’s satellite, deployed a solar sail there, called Solarwind Composition Experiment (SWC). An episode which marked the first strong moment in the history of Bernese astrophysics research, welcomes the institution, which adds that “Bernese astrophysics research has since then been part of what is best done globally” . In particular, it can boast of having participated in several space missions, such as the Cheops telescope.
Read also: The Swiss telescope Cheops begins its tour of the worlds
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