MIMOS II
Encyclopedia
MIMOS II is the miniaturised Mössbauer spectrometer, developed by Dr. Göstar Klingelhöfer at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz
, Germany
, that is used on the Mars Exploration Rover
s Spirit
and Opportunity
for close-up investigations on the Martian surface of the mineralogy of iron-bearing rocks and soils.
MIMOS II uses a Cobalt
-57 gamma ray source of about 300 mCi at launch which gave a 6-12 hr time for acquisition of a standard MB spectrum during the primary mission on Mars, depending on total Fe content and which Fe-bearing phases are present.
Cobalt-57 has a half-life of only 271.8 days (hence the extended measuring times now on Mars after over 5 years).
The MIMOS II sensorheads used on Mars are approx 9 cm x 5 cm x 4 cm and weigh about 400g
The MIMOS II system also includes a circuit board of about 100g.
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, that is used on the Mars Exploration Rover
Mars Exploration Rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars...
s Spirit
Spirit rover
Spirit, MER-A , is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, Opportunity , landed on the other side of the planet...
and Opportunity
Opportunity rover
Opportunity, MER-B , is a robotic rover on the planet Mars, active since 2004. It is the remaining rover in NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission...
for close-up investigations on the Martian surface of the mineralogy of iron-bearing rocks and soils.
MIMOS II uses a Cobalt
Cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. It is found naturally only in chemically combined form. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal....
-57 gamma ray source of about 300 mCi at launch which gave a 6-12 hr time for acquisition of a standard MB spectrum during the primary mission on Mars, depending on total Fe content and which Fe-bearing phases are present.
Cobalt-57 has a half-life of only 271.8 days (hence the extended measuring times now on Mars after over 5 years).
The MIMOS II sensorheads used on Mars are approx 9 cm x 5 cm x 4 cm and weigh about 400g
The MIMOS II system also includes a circuit board of about 100g.
Further reading
- MIMOS II 25 slide presentation