The Royal House of the Netherlands pays visit to Luxembourg

His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima paid a state visit to Luxembourg from 23 to 25 May 2018 at the invitation of Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Duchess of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The King and Queen were accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok and a business delegation of about 30 representatives. 

On 24 May, the state visit started with a visit to Belval Innovation Campus. A meeting took place at the ‘Maison du Savoir’ on the University of Luxembourg’s campus, about government initiatives on asteroid mining, a field in which Luxembourg is an international frontrunner. The King and Queen spoke with Dutch and Luxembourg students and lecturers and attended several presentations. 

Among the several presentational stands, LIST was present at the one dedicated to Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) in Luxembourg, with a special focus on space activities. LIST introduced King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima to one of its most mediatized Luxembourg-made technologies: the compact mass spectrometer for space applications.  

Tom Wirtz, LIST’s main expert in the field, presented the advanced scientific instrumentation, supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), a number of industrial partners and other public research institutions, such as NASA's Ames Research Center. The objective of MS-SPACE, one of the larger-scale project linked to LIST’s mass spectrometry, is to adapt and pursue the development of the mass spectrometry technology developed over the last few years for space applications. This technology was first developed for hydrological purposes as part of a previous project, FieldSpec, also funded by the FNR. Thanks to its compact size and high mass resolution, this first development showed the necessary potential for further development to meet the requirements for future space exploration.

The Royal Couple showed great interest in the technology asking multiple informed questions about the scientific challenges linked to the size reduction of the instrument while maintaining the same analytical performance level.