Jared Schroeder
Jared Schroeder has passed his dissertation defense, advancing the field of in-situ space instrumentation.
His dissertation, “Advancing Neutral Instrument Calibration: Development of a Molecular Beam Facility and Velocity Filtering Technique for In-Situ Mass Spectrometers,” was presented on Friday, July 18, 2025, under the guidance of Dr. Stefano Livi.
Schroeder’s work focused on improving the calibration and sensitivity of neutral mass spectrometers used in spaceflight, with emphasis on Strofio, the neutral gas spectrometer aboard ESA-JAXA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury. Following a post-launch hardware failure, he contributed to restoring Strofio’s scientific functionality through simulations and flight tests.
Key contributions of the dissertation include:
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Development of a velocity filtering technique to reduce background noise from spacecraft outgassing,
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Construction of a custom molecular beam facility to simulate high-speed neutral particle environments (1–8 km/s), enabling more realistic calibration scenarios.
This research not only revitalized Strofio’s scientific capability but also established new standards for future in-situ neutral detector calibration and validation.