Mochii

Short description: Miniature scanning electron microscope

MochiiDeveloper| Voxa

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Type| Scanning electron microscope
Dimensions| 210 mm × 210 mm × 265 mm[1]
Website| Official 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". https://www.mymochii.com/specifications.html.
2. ↑ "The Applications and Practical Uses of Scanning Electron Microscopes" (in en-AU). 2019-08-02. https://www.atascientific.com.au/sem-imaging-applications-practical-uses-scanning-electron-microscopes/.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Boyle, Alan (2020-02-07). "From the garage to the space station: Voxa's Mochii electron microscope will be flying high" (in en-US). https://www.geekwire.com/2020/garage-space-station-voxas-mochii-electron-microscope-will-flying-high/.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Johnson, Michael (2020-01-29). "New Research to ISS Aboard Northrop Grumman-13". http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/ng-13-research-highlights.
5. ↑ "Search". https://beta.sam.gov/search?keywords=mochii&sort=-relevance&index=&is_active=true&page=1.
6. ↑ Pettit, Donald R. (August 3, 2015). "Some Unexpected Difficulties in Microscope Operation in Microgravity" (in en). Microscopy and Microanalysis 21 (S2): 42–43. doi:10.1017/S1431927615014579. ISSN 1431-9276. Bibcode: 2015MiMic..21S..42P. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/microscopy-and-microanalysis/article/some-unexpected-difficulties-in-microscope-operation-in-microgravity/FCE06DC1335A6E1D2F92532451CF5E83.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 "2018 Microscopy Today Innovation Awards" (in en). Microscopy Today 26 (5): 34–38. September 2018. doi:10.1017/S1551929518000822. ISSN 1551-9295.
8. ↑ Loff, Sarah (2015-06-24). "NEEMO - NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations". http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NEEMO/index.html.
9. ↑ Boyle, Alan (2020-02-15). "Third time's the charm: Cygnus cargo ship finally gets launched to the space station" (in en-US). https://www.geekwire.com/2020/third-times-charm-cygnus-cargo-ship-finally-gets-launched-space-station/.
10. ↑ Malik, Tariq (15 February 2020). "Northrop Grumman launches Cygnus cargo ship to space station for NASA" (in en). https://www.space.com/antares-cygnus-cargo-ship-ng-13-launch-success.html.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Garcia, Mark (2020-02-15). "U.S. Cygnus Cargo Ship Blasts Off to Station for Tuesday Delivery". https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2020/02/15/u-s-cygnus-cargo-ship-blasts-off-to-station-for-tuesday-delivery/.
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" (in en). Microscopy and Microanalysis 23 (S1): 1082–1083. doi:10.1017/S1431927617006079. ISSN 1431-9276.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 "Specifications". https://www.mymochii.com/specifications.html.
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" (in en). LPI (2083): 2756. Bibcode: 2018LPI....49.2756O.
15. ↑ "Energy-dispersive detector (EDS)" (in en). https://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/geochemsheets/eds.html.

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