The DLR Sample Analysis Laboratory – the final countdown
1

Joern Helbert , Enrica Bonato1, Ansgar Greshake2, Alessandro Maturilli1, Giulia Alemanno1, Aurelie van den Neucker1
and Lutz Hecht2
1
DLR, Institute for Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany
2
Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany

Laboratory measurements of extra-terrestrial materials like meteorites and ultimately materials from sample return missions cansignificantly enhance the scientific return of the global remote sensing data. This motivates the ongoing addition of a dedicatedSample Analysis Laboratory (SAL) to complement the work of well-established facilities like the Planetary Spectroscopy
Laboratory (PSL) and the Planetary Atmosphere Simulation LABoratory (PASLAB) within the Department of Planetary
Laboratories at DLR, Berlin. SAL is being developed in preparation to receive samples from sample return missions such as
JAXA Hayabusa 2 and MMX missions, the Chinese Chang-E 5 and 6 missions as well as the NASA Osiris-REX mission. SALis focusing on spectroscopic, geochemical, mineralogical analyses at microscopic level with the ultimate aim to derive
information on the formation and evolution of planetary bodies and surfaces, search for traces of organic materials or even tracesof extinct or extant life and presence of water.
SAL is currently being set up at the Institute for Planetary Research at the DLR location in Berlin-Adlershof in Germany. The
cleanroom environment is on the ground floor of the main DLR building in Berlin-Adlershof with a room for support
infrastructure in the basement below.
Procurement of the instruments is almost complete and first instruments are already been delivered. SAL will be equipped witha vis-IR-microscope (Bruker Hyperion 2000), a Malvern Panalytical Empyrean X-ray diffraction (XRD) system with BraggBrentano geometry which can be switched to parallel beam geometry, equipped with a Cu Kα source, 1Der detector andautomated incident beam optics, a Field Emission – scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), a JEOL iHP200F Field Emission– electron microprobe analyzer (FE-EMPA), petrographic and stereo microscopes, Keyence VHX-7000 3D microscope and aset of gloveboxes.
The Bruker Hyperion 2000 and the Keyence VHX-7000 3D microscope are already in operation at PSL and PASLAB and havebeen used recently to study Ryugu sample A0112. The JEOL iHP200F is currently setup at JEOL in Freising, Germany.
Acceptance tests were successfully completed in March 2023. Commissioning, calibration, testing and initial training wascompleted in summer of 2023. The instrument has been used recently for work on meteorites and will be transferred to DLR inearly 2024 with an additional delta commissioning planned after final installation. The X-ray diffraction system has beendelivered in December 2022 and is currently in storage and will be setup as soon as the cleanrooms are ready. SEM procurement
is currently under way with a delivery expected in summer of 2024.
In collaboration with the Natural History Museum (MfN) in Berlin, SAL will also have the expertise and facilities for carryingout curation of sample return material which will be made available for the whole European scientific community. DLR isalready curating a 0.45 mg of Lunar regolith collected from the Luna 24 Soviet mission and the first analyses of the material arebeing planned.
Currently, the curatorial expertise is being developed on the existing expertise from the Meteorite Collection based at the MfNand in collaboration with the JAXA and NASA curation facilities. Current curators, together with the younger generation arebeing trained and working on skillset exchange