Noble gas isotopes were measured in three rocky grains from asteroid Itokawa to elucidate a history of irradiation from cosmic rays and solar wind on its surface. Large amounts of solar helium (He), neon (Ne), and argon (Ar) trapped in various depths in the grains were observed, which can be explained by multiple implantations of solar wind particles into the grains, combined with preferential He loss caused by frictional wear of space-weathered rims on the grains. Short residence time of less than 8 million years was implied for the grains by an estimate on cosmic-ray-produced (21)Ne. Our results suggest that Itokawa is continuously losing its surface materials into space at a rate of tens of centimeters per million years. The lifetime of Itokawa should be much shorter than the age of our solar system.

Phobos and Deimos occupy unique positions both scientifically and programmatically on the road to the exploration of the solar system. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans a Phobos sample return mission (MMX: Martian Moons eXploration). The MMX spacecraft is scheduled to be launched in 2024, orbit both Phobos and Deimos (multiple flybys), and retrieve and return >10 g of Phobos regolith back to Earth in 2029. The Phobos regolith represents a mixture of endogenous Phobos building blocks and exogenous materials that contain solar system projectiles (e.g., interplanetary dust particles and coarser materials) and ejecta from Mars and Deimos. Under the condition that the representativeness of the sampling site(s) is guaranteed by remote sensing observations in the geologic context of Phobos, laboratory analysis (e.g., mineralogy, bulk composition, O-Cr-Ti isotopic systematics, and radiometric dating) of the returned sample will provide crucial information about the moon’s origin: capture of an asteroid or in-situ formation by a giant impact. If Phobos proves to be a captured object, isotopic compositions of volatile elements (e.g., D/H, 13C/12C, 15N/14N) in inorganic and organic materials will shed light on both organic-mineral-water/ice interactions in a primitive rocky body originally formed in the outer solar system and the delivery process of water and organics into the inner rocky planets.

We have developed a new nano-beam time-of-flight secondary neutral mass spectrometry system: laser ionization mass nanoscope or LIMAS. The primary ion beam column was equipped with a Ga liquid metal ion source and aberration correction optics. The primary ion beam was down to 40 nm in diameter under a current of 100 pA with an energy of 20 keV. The sputtered particles were post-ionized under non-resonance mode by a femtosecond laser. The post-ionized ions were introduced into a multi-turn mass spectrometer. A mass resolution of up to 40 000 was achieved. The vacuum of the sample chamber was maintained under an ultrahigh vacuum of 2 Â 10 À8 Pa. This instrument would be effective for ultrahigh sensitive analysis of nanosized particles such as return samples from asteroids, comets, and planets.

No abstract

Laser ionization mass nanoscope is a time-of-flight sputtered neutral mass spectrometer associated with laser post-ionization by tunneling effect. A spherical and chromatic aberration corrector is installed in the primary ion column. The lateral spatial resolving power of He imaging of solid surface has been evaluated by scanning image using a probe diameter of 90 nm from crater edge slope of a He ion-implanted Si substrate. Helium distribution from the scanning image is quantitatively equivalent with depth profiling analysis from surface of the same substrate, indicating that spatial resolving power of 20 nm for depth resolution has been achieved on the He scanning image through use of oblique incident effect of the primary beam.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will launch a spacecraft in 2024 for a sample return mission from Phobos (Martian Moons eXploration: MMX). Touchdown operations are planned to be performed twice at different landing sites on the Phobos surface to collect > 10 g of the Phobos surface materials with coring and pneumatic sampling systems on board. The Sample Analysis Working Team (SAWT) of MMX is now designing analytical protocols of the returned Phobos samples to shed light on the origin of the Martian moons as well as the evolution of the Mars–moon system. Observations of petrology and mineralogy, and measurements of bulk chemical compositions and stable isotopic ratios of, e.g., O, Cr, Ti, and Zn can provide crucial information about the origin of Phobos. If Phobos is a captured asteroid composed of primitive chondritic materials, as inferred from its reflectance spectra, geochemical data including the nature of organic matter as well as bulk H and N isotopic compositions characterize the volatile materials in the samples and constrain the type of the captured asteroid. Cosmogenic and solar wind components, most pronounced in noble gas isotopic compositions, can reveal surface processes on Phobos. Long- and short-lived radionuclide chronometry such as 53Mn–53Cr and 87Rb–87Sr systematics can date pivotal events like impacts, thermal metamorphism, and aqueous alteration on Phobos. It should be noted that the Phobos regolith is expected to contain a small amount of materials delivered from Mars, which may be physically and chemically different from any Martian meteorites in our collection and thus are particularly precious. The analysis plan will be designed to detect such Martian materials, if any, from the returned samples dominated by the endogenous Phobos materials in curation procedures at JAXA before they are processed for further analyses.

We have evaluated the performance of a multi-turn time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MULTUM II) equipped with the ion injection optics of a laser ionization mass nanoscope (LIMAS). We surveyed the optimal parameters for the ion injection optics, which consist of ion extraction from a sample surface and ion introduction into MULTUM II. We developed mass calibration methods for correcting the modulation of load voltage for MULTUM II and injection timing for the ion injection optics. As a result, the mass-resolving power of LIMAS increased linearly with increasing the flight path length, and reached 6.2 × 10 5 (full width at half maximum) at 1000 multi-turn cycles of MULTUM II (flight path length: 1.3 km). The transmittance of LIMAS decreased to 60-70% after 20 multi-turn cycles of MULTUM II, compared with the linear mode transmittance. The transmittance per multi-turn cycle became constant (99.96%) after 20 multi-turn cycles. A useful yield of 3 × 10 À3 for Si ions was obtained for LIMAS at 30 multiturn cycles of MULTUM II.

Helium has the largest ionization potential of all elements; thus, it is difficult to ionization for measurement by mass spectrometry. In order to analyze He, a tunnel-ionization time-of-flight sputtered neutral mass spectrometry system (called LIMAS) has recently been developed. LIMAS uses a femto-second laser technique, and can ionize He to achieve ~10% ionization yields [1]. We quantified the effectiveness of this method for He analysis from a 2.5 × 4 µm 2 area of He-implanted silicon. The amount of He in a implant was quantified by measuring the ion-current, giving a nominal implant fluence per unit area. Thus, the fraction of total He measured by LIMAS during depth profiling could be quantified by comparison with the He-concentration of the reference implant. The He + intensities normalized by host ions of Si linearly correlated with the known He concentrations with a reproducibility of 10% at concentrations less than 10 21 cm -3 . The detection limit was down to 10 18 He cm -3 (20 ppm). For concentrations exceeding 10 21 cm -3 , the He intensities are smaller than those expected from the lower concentration range. This non-linearity may reflect the limit of retention of He in the Si lattice, since He is chemically inert.2