Mochii
DeveloperVoxa
TypeScanning electron microscope
Dimensions210 mm × 210 mm × 265 mm[1]
WebsiteOfficial website

Mochii is a miniature scanning electron microscope made by Seattle-based startup company Voxa. The Mochii has the same capabilities as a conventional SEM, such as usage in materials science for research purposes, microchip and semiconductor quality control, and medicine.[2] Mochii users are able to operate the microscope using an IOS app.

History

Development of what ended up being the Mochii began in 2012.[3] The goal of the Mochii was to take scanning electron microscopes, conventionally large, expensive, and unwieldy tools, and shrink them down in order to decrease cost and increase portability.[3]

In 2015, Voxa began collaborating with NASA who saw the potential of taking the Mochii to space.[4] In the last few years, NASA has provided upwards of $450,000[5] for the development of the Mochii. The Mochii had to confront issues unique to space-based operation such as "errant fluid behavior, residual gravity gradients, cosmic rays, and safety of flight".[6]

In 2018, the Mochii won the Microscopy Today Innovation Award, an industry award given for inventions that make microscopy more efficient and powerful.[7]

In June 2019, the Mochii participated in the 23rd NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) mission.[8]

On February 15, 2020, the Mochii launched on the Cygnus cargo spacecraft, headed to the ISS.[9][10][11] Voxa's microscope is supposed to help with on-site imaging at the ISS, this eliminates the need for sending the sample back down to Earth which has the issues of cost, time, and potential sample damage.[3][12][11][4]

Specifications

The Mochii measures 21 cm × 21 cm × 26.5 cm [13] and weighs around 6 pounds.[7] The SEM's stage measures 2 cm × 2 cm × 1.5 cm. The Mochii has a swap-able optical cartridge that eliminates the need for in-person servicing. The cartridge has a source potential of 10 kV, a 5000x magnification, a backscatter array detector, and auto-calibration.[7][13] The microscope is capable of EDS,[7][13][14] a technique which analyzes the energy spectrum of a sample in order to find out the abundance of certain elements.[15] The Mochii comes outfitted with an app that runs on Apple devices that run IOS 8 or higher.[7][13]

References

  1. ↑ "Mochii Specifications: Inside mochii – technical specifications and details". Voxa. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  2. ↑ "The Applications and Practical Uses of Scanning Electron Microscopes". ATA Scientific. August 2, 2019. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 Boyle, Alan (February 7, 2020). "From the garage to the space station: Voxa's Mochii electron microscope will be flying high". GeekWire. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Johnson, Michael (January 29, 2020). "New Research to ISS Aboard Northrop Grumman-13". NASA. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Search". System for Award Management. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  6. ↑ Pettit, Donald R. (August 3, 2015). "Some Unexpected Difficulties in Microscope Operation in Microgravity". Microscopy and Microanalysis. 21 (S2): 42–43. Bibcode:2015MiMic..21S..42P. doi:10.1017/S1431927615014579. ISSN 1431-9276. S2CID 232396247.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "2018 Microscopy Today Innovation Awards". Microscopy Today. 26 (5): 34–38. September 2018. doi:10.1017/S1551929518000822. ISSN 1551-9295.
  8. ↑ Loff, Sarah (June 24, 2015). "NEEMO – NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations". NASA. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  9. ↑ Boyle, Alan (February 15, 2020). "Third time's the charm: Cygnus cargo ship finally gets launched to the space station". GeekWire. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  10. ↑ Malik, Tariq (February 15, 2020). "Northrop Grumman launches Cygnus cargo ship to space station for NASA". Space.com. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  11. 1 2 Garcia, Mark (February 15, 2020). "U.S. Cygnus Cargo Ship Blasts Off to Station for Tuesday Delivery". NASA.
  12. ↑ Own, Christopher S.; Murfitt, Matthew F.; Own, Lawrence S.; Cushing, Jesse; Martinez, James; Thomas-Keprta, Katherine; Pettit, Donald R. (March 2018). "Portable Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis in Extreme Environments". Microscopy and Microanalysis. 23 (S1): 1082–1083. doi:10.1017/S1431927617006079. ISSN 1431-9276.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Specifications". www.mymochii.com. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  14. ↑ Own, C. S.; Thomas-Keprta, K. T.; Cushing, J.; DeRego, T.; Own, L. S.; Rahman, Z.; Martinez, J.; Pettit, D. R. (July 20, 2018). "Portable Electron Microscopy for Space: To ISS and Beyond". LPI (2083): 2756. Bibcode:2018LPI....49.2756O.
  15. ↑ "Energy-dispersive detector (EDS)". Geochemical Instrumentation and Analysis. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
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