CHESS: Compact High-Entendue Spectrometer for Space

Leiden Measurement Technology (LMT) proposes to design and construct the Compact High-Entendue Spectrometer for Space (CHESS), a highly-sensitive and compact spectrometer designed for emission spectroscopy applications such as fluorescence and luminescence. CHESS fits into a bounding box of 90mm x 108mm x 200mm and is especially well-suited for applications including hyperspectral fluorescence microscopy, the detection of aromatic biosignatures and other analytes including PAHS, and water monitoring applications for the detection of many classes of organic pollutants. It can serve as a detector in many different existing instrument technologies including liquid chromatographs, flow cytometers, plate readers, and point-of-care diagnostic devices. CHESS boasts an entendue (total light throughput/sensitivity) that is 25- to 1,000-times higher than similarly-sized commercial spectrometers. CHESS draws heritage from previous highly-sensitive fluorescence detection instruments funded by NASA. LMT has been able to leverage engineering solutions from these past projects to realize CHESS' high-sensitivity packed into a rugged and compact form factor. CHESS has many applications but is especially well-suited for integration into the HYMDOL hyperspectral microscope, developed with NASA funding, for the detection and characterization of microbial life on Ocean Worlds and rocky bodies such as Mars. In this Phase I, our primary goal is to reduce the risk of moving into Phase II by validating the CHESS' optical design and producing detailed designs and requirements to be implemented in Phase II. In Phase II, we will manufacture and mature CHESS towards flight applications.

CHESS is an extremely capable spectrometer, especially for the applications of DUV-VIS fluorescence spectroscopy. It can serve as a detector for NASA's hyperspectral DUV-VIS microscopes (e.g., HYMDOL), for flow cytometry applications, for stand-off fluorescence detection, and for continuous water monitoring applications. CHESS is especially sensitive to aromatic organics which include biomarkers, functional fluorescent stains, and many classes of organic pollutants. For these reasons, it can be deployed as part of NASA's search for extraterrestrial life, monitoring flight habitat water supplies for contamination, planetary protection evaluation for equipment bioloads (e.g., via stand-off deep ultraviolet fluorescence spectroscopy), and crew medical diagnostics (e.g., as a detector for suspension array interrogation, or multiplexed DNA/antibody device). CHESS can readily be used for industrial water monitoring, being deployed at sites of mining operations and oil/gas exploration where industrial holding pond water must be monitored for aromatic compounds before being released to the environment. It is especially well-suited to monitor for the contamination of ship-board water systems for both biological and hydrocarbon contamination. As an extremely sensitive, high-speed detector, it is also well suited for integration into high-end analytical instrumentation including flow cytometers, high-performance liquid chromatographs, compact multiplexed point-of-care medical devices utilizing fluorescent reporters (e.g., DNA and antibody markers), and biomedical plate readers.

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