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 II, out primary goal is to design, build, validate (shock/vibe/thermal) and deliver CHESS to NASA.

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 measuring 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). We have recently been in talks with a team at NASA ARC who is interested in developing CHESS for a mission to Venus. CHESS would be used to detect fluorescence from cloud aerosols captured on a plate. This would be an ideal application of CHESS where high-speed, high-sensitivity detection of fluorescence is required. We have identified water treatment and monitoring as a primary commercial target market, with spacecraft resource management and flow cytometry as promising secondary markets. As a compact, extremely sensitive DUV-VIS spectrometer that is designed for detecting and quantifying very faint fluorescence signals, CHESS will be well-positioned to enter the well-established and growing broader markets of industrial and potable water monitoring. We envision multiple key uses cases for CHESS in this field. The primary use cases are within the drinking water industry as well as industrial wastewater monitoring for oil and gas, mining, or anywhere industrial holding pond water must be monitored for aromatic compounds before being released to the environment. Drinking water must be monitored for pathogens, while heavy industries also need to monitor especially for aromatic organics such as phthalates. The ensuing environmental impact of improving such monitoring stands to benefit American society at large, especially as technological capability may allow for easier compliance with healthy standards. Because it can easily be integrated into a stand-alone multi-excitation wavelength fluorometer for continuous water monitoring, CHESS will represent a leap forward in sensitivity and automation for real-time, processes compared to what is currently available in the market today. Therefore, it is poised to be extremely attractive to businesses invested in technology to ensure water safety and quality, including Veolia, DuPont, 3M, Evoqua, EcoLab, and BioMicrobics. Most water purification processes are based on reverse osmosis or filtration; CHESS could serve as a validation test for these applications.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.