Nebula Public Library

Increasing numbers of regulations in Europe (e.g. RoHS, REACH, CLP) are implemented targeting sustainable development, environmental impact and protection of human health. The most imminent implication is the possible obsolescence of qualified materials, processes and technologies, as manufacturers are forced to change materials compositions, alter manufacturing processes or take the decision to remove materials from the European market.

Along 20 years of life sciences research in space, several full size microscopes were developed (phase contrast, fluorescence analysis, and recently the Advanced Light Microscope from NASA) to be used on board the ISS. However, such bulky systems appeared to prevent a versatile use and limit the potential of experiments that can be performed today on ground. In particular, none of them can be accommodated on an on board centrifuge to perform experiments in microgravity and at various G level. And for most of them, the samples are fixed on a glass slide and allow only static analyses.

The objective of this activity was to develop a novel type of X-ray detector that combines two of the most important detector parameters: a large active area and a good energy resolution. This new 'GDD' detector is of gas-filled type, but its internal structure is similar to the widely-used Silicon Drift Detector.