Solutions

Mission

For space biology OIP participated in several studies and projects for the miniaturization of microscope diagnostics for ESA since the ‘90ies. This resulted in the definition, development and demonstration of Miniature Microscopes (MiMi)

OIP’s Participation

OIP, as a subcontractor to Dutch Space [former Fokker Space, The Netherlands], developed two demonstration models of a very compact microscope system for the automatic observation of live biological samples over extended periods of time. OIP was responsible for the optical microscope subsystem.

The models were MiMi-100 and MiMi-160.

The project was performed for ESA, under subcontract to Dutch Space

Status

All demonstration model microscopes were delivered to ESA and fully tested. Unfortunately none of the microscopes was selected for the ISS.

Notably from the successful MiMi-100 and MiMi-160 projects the important conclusion could be drawn that fully automated miniature (container based) microscopes, making use of commercial components, were entirely feasible. And this led to another microscope project, Fluor MiMi.