An in situ laser induced breakdown spectroscope (LIBS) for Chandrayaan-2 rover: Ablation kinetics and emissivity estimations

VOILA on LUVMI-X: Volatiles Detection in the Lunar Polar Region with Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

“…LIBS was first used in space by the ChemCam instrument on board NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars [5,6]. The first LIBS instrument on the Moon was supposed to operate on board the Pragyan rover of India's Chandrayaan-2 mission [7]. However, the Chandrayaan-2 lander failed a soft landing in September 2019.…”

Plasma Spectroscopy of Various Types of Gypsum: An Ideal Terrestrial Analogue

“…In the present work, gypsum samples from varied terrestrial environments and textural types have been studied for their inter-sample comparison while using LIBS data combined with multivariate statistical analysis methods. The data generated can be compared with the available ChemCam data on gypsum from Mars and the upcoming Chandrayaan-2 experiments from Moon [32].…”

Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on-board Chandrayaan-2 rover

“…Quantitative estimates of elemental abundances on local scales play an important role in understanding the evolution of the lunar surface 1 . These measurements are very important, and hence the Chandrayaan-2 rover carries two experiments to determine the elemental composition using two independent techniques -(i) LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer) 2 , which measures elemental concentration based on the optical lines from the laser induced plasma emission; and (ii) APXS (Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer), which measures elemental concentration based on the characteristic X-ray lines emitted by the atoms excited by incident alpha and X-ray radiation. The technique of determining elemental abundances using characteristic X-ray lines through APXS instrument is well proven by a series of experiments on Martian surface since the three generations of Mars rovers, namely -Sojourner rover on the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 3 , Spirit and Opportunity (Mars Exploration Rovers) in 2003 4 , and Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) in 2013 5 , have provided a wealth of data on the elemental composition at various locations of the Martian surface [6][7][8] .…”