Moessbauer-Spectrometer MIMOS II: Future developments and applications

Our miniaturized Moessbauer spectrometer MIMOS II successfully operates on the surface of Mars for more than four years as part of NASAs Mars exploration Rover science payload. MIMOS II has been successfully used for detection and quantitative analysis of Fe-bearing minerals on the Martian surfaces and has demonstrated its value for future missions. Currently MIMOS II is part of the missions ExoMars and Phobos-Grunt. ExoMars is managed by European Space Agency and planned to be launched in 2013.It involves the development of a sophisticated Mars rover with set of instruments to further characterize the biological environment on Mars. Data from the mission should provide an input for broader exobiological studies - the search for life on other planets. An advanced MIMOS II instrument will be one of the contact instruments designed to characterize samples on the surface for further analysis/collection. New Si-drift detectors and state of the art FPGA's will increase the sensitivity of MIMOS II. Phobos-Grunt is developed by the Russian Space Agency, planned to be launched in 2009. The main goals of the mission are Phobos regolith sample return, Phobos in situ study and Mars remote sensing