Jean-Pierre Bibring: a pioneer in space exploration

Originally from Paris, Jean-Pierre Bibring followed a traditional academic path, enrolling in a 2-year scientific preparatory course after completing his baccalaureate. In 1968, he chose not to pursue offers from several "grandes écoles", despite their reputations. After qualifying for the Preparatory institutes for secondary education (IPES) through admission to the École normale supérieure (ENS), he opted to study physics at the Faculty of Science in Orsay. During his master's degree, he obtained the Certificate of Aptitude for Teaching in Secondary Education (CAPES). However, he resigned at the end of his internship at the Lycée Lavoisier secondary school in order to focus on higher education and scientific research.
 

From nuclear physics to space exploration

Recruited by Raymond Castaing as a physics assistant at Université Paris-Sud (now Université Paris-Saclay), he went on to specialise with a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in nuclear physics. "It was at this time that I had the good fortune to cross paths with Michel Maurette, a specialist in the laboratory analysis of meteorites and lunar samples brought back by the Apollo missions. After a period in the United States, Michel was invited to set up a team by René Bernas, who headed up an interdisciplinary laboratory at Orsay, the Center for Nuclear Sciences and Material Sciences (CSNSM). I joined him to complete a postgraduate thesis, then a state thesis. During this time, I tried to apply what I'd learned in nuclear physics to the study of lunar samples brought back by the Apollo missions. Without an atmosphere, the Moon is irradiated by solar wind and cosmic radiation. These leave their mark on the surface grains in the form of physical and chemical effects, understanding such effects sheds light on the properties of the Sun and Moon," explains Jean-Pierre Bibring. This work then extended to the exploration of planetary objects, aiming to decipher their evolution, through the development of innovative analytical techniques.
 

Creation of the IAS: when universities became key players in the space industry

While still a young lecturer, Jean-Pierre Bibring played a central role in the creation of the Institute for Space Astrophysics (IAS) at Orsay in the early 1980s. At a time when French space research was structured around a handful of space laboratories - research units specialising in space instrumentation, mainly attached to the CNRS as "affiliated laboratories" - he advocated for the inclusion of a space laboratory within a university campus. "I thought it was vital to integrate these laboratories into a university environment, both to foster structural links with multidisciplinary scientific research and to nurture university education. Given Orsay's dynamic university environment and the presence of the Laboratory for the use of Electromagnetic Radiation (LURE), a key technological asset for the calibration of space instruments, it seemed obvious to us that this was where this institute should be based, and not in Toulouse, as the Interministerial Delegation of Land Planning and Regional Attractiveness (DATAR) was urging us to do."

With the support of the French space agency (CNES), the French Ministry of Research and the CNRS, the IAS was created in Orsay. Combining instrumental development, fundamental research and academic education, this laboratory was structured around three themes: space exploration of the solar system; stellar and solar astrophysics; and cosmology and the formation of the Universe's large-scale structures. A fourth theme, astrochemistry, was added later.
 

Martian exploration: a scientific and technological quest

At the IAS, where he coordinated solar system exploration programmes, Jean-Pierre Bibring focused his research on projects that include instrumentation developments. In 1984, he contributed to the Soviet Phobos mission, taking responsibility for developing the first infrared hyperspectral imager, designed to study Mars and its satellite Phobos. This technique, which combines imaging and infrared spectrometry, is used to characterise the mineralogical and molecular composition of the imaged surface, at the scale of each individual pixel.  "We made the first orbital observations of Mars directly revealing its composition... but only for two months, before a solar flare damaged the probe," explains Jean-Pierre Bibring.

Although short-lived, this mission paved the way for long-term collaboration with several international space agencies, including NASA, ESA, ROSCOSMOS and JAXA. In the 1990s, he contributed to the design and definition of the Mars Express mission, launched in 2003 by ESA and still in operation today. He was responsible for the design, production and operation of the OMEGA instrument. A hyperspectral imaging spectrometer designed to map the composition of the Martian surface and atmosphere, it was developed at the IAS in association with the Paris-Meudon Observatory and two other laboratories, one in Rome and the other in Moscow. "Thanks to OMEGA, we have rewritten the mineralogical history of Mars since its formation, revealing in particular a very ancient era during which water was present in abundance on its surface. Today's exploration aims to explore the sites that have retained a record of these past conditions," explains Jean-Pierre Bibring.

Following on from Mars Express, he became involved in ESA's ExoMars mission, designed to search for any traces of biological evolution, past or present, on Mars. In terms of instruments, he has contributed to expanding hyperspectral infrared space imaging from remote object analysis (now available on virtually all orbital missions) to microscopic characterisation of samples.
 

From comets to asteroids: tracing the origins of the solar system

Another highlight of Jean-Pierre Bibring's career was his involvement, from 1994 onwards, in the Rosetta mission, as co-scientific director of Philae, the mission's lander which landed on comet 67P/Chourioumov-Guerassimenko in 2014. "This unprecedented feat has enabled us to collect invaluable data that has profoundly changed our understanding of comets and their potential role in the evolution of life on Earth. We're continuing this work with new missions to bring back samples of very primordial objects," says Jean-Pierre Bibring.

Consequently, for several years, he has been collaborating on the Japanese Hayabusa2 mission, which brought samples of carbonaceous asteroids to Earth to analyse their chemical composition. "As part of this cooperation, we developed the MicrOmega instrument, a hyperspectral near-IR microscope used to characterise the composition of minerals and organic compounds in samples brought to Earth. These measurements are carried out within the very enclosure where the samples are stored, in Japan, completely free from any terrestrial contamination." This is just one of many collaborations that reflect the international recognition of the instrumental expertise developed in France. "This work has produced results that open up a number of new paradigms concerning the extraordinarily unique processes that have shaped our planet and the life it harbours."
 

Educating tomorrow's scientists

Alongside his research activities, Jean-Pierre Bibring has always attached great importance to teaching. A professor at Université Paris-Saclay, he helped educate students in astrophysics and space instrumentation. "With Guillaume Pineau des Forets and other colleagues in the laboratory, we wanted to create courses at all levels combining physics, fundamental astrophysics and engineering, with the aim of raising our students' awareness of the challenges of space missions and the scope of their implications."

He was also involved in setting up an astrophysics course at Université Paris-Saclay for all university levels, as well as contributing to the creation of so-called professionalising courses, which today take the form of a Master's degree dedicated to onboard instrumentation. "The distinctive feature of higher education, combining teaching and research, is essential in that it offers the opportunity to acquire and pass on an approach to the world, constantly encouraging us to question ourselves and demand validated answers," concludes Jean-Pierre Bibring.
 

• Latest publication: Seuls dans l’Univers; de la diversité des mondes à l’unicité de la vie [Alone in the Universe: from the diversity of worlds to the uniqueness of life], Éditions Odile Jacob.