Development of an evolved gas-time-of-flight mass spectrometer for the Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith (VAPoR) instrument

Getty, Stéphanie; Kate, I. L. ten; Feng, Steven; Brinckerhoff, W. B.; Cardiff, Eric H.; Holmes, Vincent; King, Todd; Li, Mary J.; Mumm, E.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Glavin, Daniel P.

doi:10.1016/j.ijms.2010.06.020

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…The design of the TOF-MS component of VAPoR has been described previously [26], but the mass spectrometer has recently been modified with a new extended ion source and lens assembly needed to improve instrument sensitivity. The new TOF-MS has been systematically tested in both linear and reflectron modes (Fig.…”

Section: Time Of Flight Mass Spectrometermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The preliminary VAPoR flight instrument concept (Fig. 1) combines a sample carousel of up to six individually heated pyrolysis ovens with a reflectron time of flight mass spectrometer [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A laboratory breadboard was developed to test, optimize, and calibrate the reflectron time of flight mass spectrometer (TOF-MS) component of VAPoR inside a separate vacuum chamber and is discussed in more detail in Section V and elsewhere [26]. A separate portable field unit consisting of a custom made pyrolysis oven coupled to a commercial RGA quadrupole mass spectrometer, vacuum manifold and turbomolecular pumping station, was built to demonstrate the feasibility of conducting vacuum pyrolysis evolved gas measurements in the field and has been discussed previously [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith for planetary resource exploration

Glavin

Malespin

Kate

et al. 2012

2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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The extraction and identification of volatile resources that could be utilized by humans including water, oxygen, noble gases, and hydrocarbons on the Moon, Mars, and small planetary bodies will be critical for future long-term human exploration of these objects. Vacuum pyrolysis at elevated temperatures has been shown to be an efficient way to release volatiles trapped inside solid samples. In order to maximize the extraction of volatiles, including oxygen and noble gases from the breakdown of minerals, a pyrolysis temperature of 1400°C or higher is required, which greatly exceeds the maximum temperatures of current state-of-the-art flight pyrolysis instruments. Here we report on the recent optimization and field testing results of a high temperature pyrolysis oven and sample manipulation system coupled to a mass spectrometer instrument called Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith (VAPoR). VAPoR is capable of heating solid samples under vacuum to temperatures above 1300°C and determining the composition of volatiles released as a function of temperature.

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Section: Time Of Flight Mass Spectrometermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith for planetary resource exploration

Glavin

Malespin

Kate

et al. 2012

2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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“…Applications include monitoring public safety areas [1], detecting chemical warfare agents (CWA) in battlefield situations [2,3], analyzing harsh environmental conditions [4,5], ensuring industrial quality control [6], and even screening in medicine [7]. One of the shortcomings for in situ analysis is sample collection, extraction, separation, or other special treatments that are needed for certain samples [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiplexed MS/MS in a Miniature Rectilinear Ion Trap

Graichen

Vachet

2011

J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom.

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A multiplexed method for performing MS/MS on multiple ions simultaneously in a miniature rectilinear ion trap (RIT) mass spectrometer has been developed. This method uses an ion encoding procedure that relies on the mass bias that exists when ions are externally injected into an RIT operated with only a single phase rf applied to one pair of electrodes. The ion injection profile under such conditions ions is Gaussian-like over a wide range of rf amplitudes, or low mass cutoff (LMCO) values, during ion accumulation. We show that this distribution is related to ion m/z and is likely caused by ions having an optimal range of pseudo-potential well depths for efficient trapping. Based on this observation, precursor ion intensity changes between two different injection LMCO values can be predicted, and these ion intensity changes are found to be carried through to their corresponding product ions, enabling multiplexed MS/MS spectra to be deconvoluted.

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“…Time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) has attracted increasing attention [6][7][8][9][10] due to its relative simplicity, wide mass range, high resolution, and compatibility with a variety of sampling and ionization methods. These advantages are especially beneficial on landed missions to airless bodies such as asteroids, comets, and most planetary satellites including the Moon.…”

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confidence: 99%

Laser ablation mass spectrometer (LAMS) as a standoff analyzer in space missions for airless bodies

Brinckerhoff

Managadze

et al. 2012

International Journal of Mass Spectrometry

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A laser ablation mass spectrometer (LAMS) based on a time-of-flight (TOF) analyzer with adjustable drift length is proposed as a standoff elemental composition sensor for space missions to airless bodies. It is found that the use of a retarding potential analyzer in combination with a two-stage reflectron enables LAMS to be operated at variable drift length. For field-free drift lengths between 33 em to 100 em, at least unit mass resolution can be maintained solely by adjustment of internal voltages, and without resorting to drastic reductions in sensitivity. Therefore, LAMS should be able to be mounted on a robotic arm and analyze samples at standoff distances of up to several tens of em, permitting high operational flexibility and wide area coverage of heterogeneous regolith on airless bodies. 1 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120017379 2018-05-10T03:29:25+00:00Z Miniature mass spectrometers have been designed for use on space missions for decades [1][2][3][4][5]. Time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) has attracted increasing attention [6-10] due to its relative simplicity, wide mass range, high resolution, and compatibility with a variety of sampling and ionization methods. These advantages are especially beneficial on landed missions to airless bodies such as asteroids, comets, and most planetary satellites including the Moon. On such missions, a fixed lander or a rover may be deployed to explore a local region of the surface, where chemical analysis of a variety of regolith materials is expected to be a top priority. A laser ablation TOF-MS can be used for this analysis, without requiring collection and manipulation of samples [8,9, 11 J. In the laser ablation mass spectrometer (LAMS) instrument described previously [8,9], a high-intensity pulsed laser is directed onto a sample of interest, forming ions that travel across the vacuum gap between the instrument and the analyzer inlet, and are subsequently focused in a reflectron. Normally, the gap distance L ext (several cm in LAMS) has been treated as fixed, which would require precise instrument positioning such as with a robotic arm. However, it has been long known that the technique is compatible with variable L ext . The Figure 1, the field-free drift length L is the sum of ion path lengths outside (L ext ) and inside (Lint) the spectrometer. We show via theoretical simulation that high mass resolution (R > 250, sufficient to resolve unit mass isotopes) elemental analysis can he achieved for L ranging from 33 cm to at least 100 cm.In the LAMS design as described previously [8], the laser ablated ions travel from the sample surface into the mass analyzer and are redirected in a two-stage reflectron onto a dual microchannel plate (MCP) detector, arriving at a sequence of times proportional to the square root of their mass-to-charge ratios, i.e., (m/z) tn Neglecting the initial temporal and spatial spreads, the TOF of a particle with mass m and initial kinetic energy zV is given by the following equation (1):(1) Using the same method, we...

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Development of an evolved gas-time-of-flight mass spectrometer for the Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith (VAPoR) instrument

Cited by 18 publications

References 18 publications

Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith for planetary resource exploration

Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith for planetary resource exploration

Multiplexed MS/MS in a Miniature Rectilinear Ion Trap

Laser ablation mass spectrometer (LAMS) as a standoff analyzer in space missions for airless bodies

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