Atomic Force Microscopy of Extraterrestrial Samples

摘要

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been employed to perform morphological analyses of extraterrestrial dust and soil particles. This work presents a review of the first in-situ images at the nanometer scale of Martian dust recently reported by NASA/Phoenix mission. Although such AFM images cannot provide more chemical evidence than the topographical data, from an engineering point of view, the operation of AFM in-flight instrument by itself is considered as a biggest challenge. Moreover, the development and building of AFM technique for planetary (including meteorites, comets, and lunar samples) science research is discussed and compared herein with previous laboratory testing results. This work also collects the results of a relatively small number of AFM experiments (ESA/MIDAS Rosetta missions, Allan Hill 84001 and Apollo 11) in an effort to provide the reader a general idea about the related technology to use AFMs in the field of space exploration. Finally, the strengths and weakness of AFM as incorporated on planetary spacecrafts for in-situ investigations is presented leading to recognize the limiting operational constrains that exists when attempting to characterize high aspect ratio extraterrestrial particles.