Technology designed to measure water vapour on Mars is being brought down to Earth for monitoring volcanoes, industrial gases and even crops.
Scientists from the UK research institute RAL Space have adapted a device created for measuring gases on other planets in order to use it as a simpler, more compact alternative to existing spectrometer equipment.
‘Mass is a real commodity on board space satellites, so we developed a very high performance spectrometer which was also extremely stable and compact,’ said the technology’s inventor Dr Hugh Mortimer in a statement.
‘We quickly realised that there were also some very real non-space application opportunities for this, ranging from R&D, to food production, environmental monitoring and agriculture, just to name a few.’
Conventional spectrometers, which measure the light reflected by different materials in order to identify their composition, are bulky and rely on a complex system of moving mirrors.
The new technology, which is being commercialised by a spin-out firm called KEIT, is compact, lightweight, and has no moving parts, making it more stable.
The researchers say this means it could sit on any food or pharmaceutical production line to check the content, origin and quality of products as they pass by, or fit onto unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor atmospheric gases in hard-to-reach areas such as around volcanoes or chemical spills.
The KEIT spectrometer could also monitor the colour variation within a farmer’s crop to assess its the health and enable a more targeted and cost-effective use of resources such as pesticides and fertilisers.
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