Surface Chemistry Environmental Chamber

Surface Chemistry Environmental Chamber
How did Mars come to be the way it is today?

Did it once have oceans?

To answer such questions the chemical processes which have shaped the surface must be understood.

Environmental chamber and gas analysis

In a simulation environment the strong ultra violet solar radiation, the low temperture and the thin atmosphere can be reproduced in order to find out if billions of years of such an environment could have transformed the surface of Mars to the highly oxidised, dusty place it has become.

Such experiments, studying surface oxidation and water transport, are performed using a Xe-Hg discharge lamp, specialized optics, a liquid nitrogen flow-through cooling system and a vacuum chamber with a rest gas analyzer for atmospheric control.