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

With the confirmation of water ice in the lunar polar regions, the Moon has recently come into the focus of attention of international space agencies again. Volatiles, specifically water and hydrogen, are important resources both for life support and for potential applications as fuels and propellants for spacecraft. In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) of volatiles could significantly reduce the costs of a sustained presence on the Moon and could be beneficial for the future human deep space exploration of the solar system. The detection of volatiles is therefore an important scientific goal for future robotic missions to the Moon. The LUVMI-X project (Lunar Volatiles Mobile Instrumentation Extended) is developing an initial system design as well as payload and mobility breadboards for the detection of volatiles in the lunar polar region on a small, lightweight rover. The LUVMI-X rover is shown in Figure 1. One proposed scientific payload is VOILA (Volatiles Identification by Laser Ablation), which is jointly developed by OHB System AG (OHB), Laser Zentrum Hannover (LZH), and the German Aerospace Centers Institute of Optical Sensor Systems (DLR-OS). VOILA will use laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to analyze the elemental composition of the lunar surface, with a special focus on detecting and quantifying hydrogen and oxygen as indicators for water. LIBS is a versatile technique that requires only optical access to its target [4]. A LIBS spectrum is obtained within seconds, making it well-suited for quick analyses of multiple targets in proximity to the rover. LIBS was first used in space by the ChemCam instrument on board NASAs Curiosity rover on Mars. The first LIBS instrument on the Moon was supposed to operate on board the Pragyan rover of Indias Chandrayaan-2 mission. However, the Chandrayaan-2 lander failed a soft landing in September 2019. Here, we present a summary of the VOILA instrument design and its intended capabilities for volatiles detection at the lunar south pole

The VOILA Instrument: Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy at the Lunar South Pole

Water at the lunar south pole is of great interest for upcoming lunar exploration endeavors. Here, we present the VOILA instrument that is capable of detecting hydrogen with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). It is also capable of detecting all major rock-forming elements, enabling the detailed analysis of the lunar regolith as well as the detection of water

VOILA on the LUVMI-X Rover: Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for the Detection of Volatiles at the Lunar South Pole

Abstract: The project Lunar Volatiles Mobile Instrumentation—Extended (LUVMI-X) developed an initial system design as well as payload and mobility breadboards for a small, lightweight rover dedicated for in situ exploration of the lunar south pole. One of the proposed payloads is the Volatiles Identification by Laser Analysis instrument (VOILA), which uses laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to analyze the elemental composition of the lunar surface with an emphasis on sampling regolith and the detection of hydrogen for the inference of the presence of water. It is designed to analyze targets in front of the rover at variable focus between 300 mm and 500 mm. The spectrometer covers the wavelength range from 350 nm to 790 nm, which includes the hydrogen line at 656.3 nm as well as spectral lines of most major rock-forming elements. We report here the scientific input that fed into the concept and design of the VOILA instrument configuration for the LUVMI-X rover. Moreover, we present the measurements performed with the breadboard laboratory setup for VOILA at DLR Berlin that focused on verifying the performance of the designed LIBS instrument in particular for the detection and quantification of hydrogen and other major rock forming elements in the context of in situ lunar surface analysis

Development of the VOILA LIBS instrument for volatiles scouting in polar regions of the Moon

In this paper, we report on the on-going development of a compact analytical instrument for future missions to the Moon, using the LIBS technique. The instrument, christened VOILA (Volatiles Identification by Laser Ablation), is part of the "LUVMI-X" scenario funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme which envisions the concept of a rover carrying a suite of instruments for detecting and characterizing volatiles as a component of lunar soil ("regolith") at high latitudes on the Moon. Behaviour of the plasma created by LIBS target ablation depends on the prevalent atmospheric pressure. Mars atmospheric pressure is close to ideal for the LIBS technique. On bodies without atmosphere such as the Moon, the lack of confining pressure leads to the plasma dissipating quickly causing weaker signals. India has developed the first, modest LIBS instrument for operation on the Moon with however a number of limitations in its optical design. Moreover, the lander of the corresponding mission Chandrayaan-2 crashed during landing in 2019. Our VOILA is designed to be between the quite capable but large and massive Mars LIBS instruments of NASA (ChemCam on the CURIOSITY ANCE rover), and the very modest Indian LIBS for Chandrayaan-2. The VOILA working range will vary between 0.3 and 0.5 m, with a laser pulse energy of ~15 mJ

Assessing the Distribution of Water Ice and Other Volatiles at the Lunar South Pole with LUVMI-X: A Mission Concept

The search for exploitable deposits of water and other volatiles at the Moon’s poles has intensified considerably in recent years, due to the renewed strong interest in lunar exploration. With the return of humans to the lunar surface on the horizon, the use of locally available resources to support long-term and sustainable exploration programs, encompassing both robotic and crewed elements, has moved into focus of public and private actors alike. Our current knowledge about the distribution and concentration of water and other volatiles in the lunar rocks and regolith is, however, too limited to assess the feasibility and economic viability of resource-extraction efforts. On a more fundamental level, we currently lack sufficiently detailed data to fully understand the origins of lunar water and its migration to the polar regions. In this paper, we present LUVMI-X, a mission concept intended to address the shortage of in situ data on volatiles on the Moon that results from a recently concluded design study. Its central element is a compact rover equipped with complementary instrumentation capable of investigating both the surface and shallow subsurface of illuminated and shadowed areas at the lunar south pole. We describe the rover and instrument design, the mission’s operational concept, and a preliminary landing-site analysis. We also discuss how LUVMI-X fits into the diverse landscape of lunar missions under development

Final characterisation and design of the Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT) for the Cherenkov telescope array

The Gamma-ray Cherenkov Telescope (GCT) is one of the telescopes proposed for the Small Sized Telescope (SST) section of CTA. Based on a dual-mirror Schwarzschild-Couder design, which allows for more compact telescopes and cameras than the usual single-mirror designs, it will be equipped with a Compact High-Energy Camera (CHEC) based on silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). In 2015, the GCT prototype was the first dual-mirror telescope constructed in the prospect of CTA to record Cherenkov light on the night sky. Further tests and observations have been performed since then. This report describes the current status of the GCT, the results of tests performed to demonstrate its compliance with CTA requirements, and the optimisation of the design for mass production. The GCT collaboration, including teams from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, plans to install the first telescopes on site in Chile for 2019-2020 as part of the CTA pre-production phase

GammapyVersion 0.19

Gammapy is a community-developed, open-source Python package for gamma-ray astronomy built on Numpy, Scipy and Astropy. It is the core library for the CTA science tools and can also be used to analyse data from existing imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs), such as H.E.S.S., MAGIC and VERITAS. It also provides some support for Fermi-LAT and HAWC data analysis