HR: 1330h
AN: B52B-1041    [PDF]
TI: Miniature Electrospray Ionization/Ion Mobility Spectrometer System for Detection of Organic Molecules on Mars
AU: * Beegle, L W
EM: Luther.Beegle@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, Ca 91109 United States
AU: Johnson, P V
EM: Paul.v.johnson@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, Ca 91109 United States
AU: Kanik, I
EM: ikanik@pop.jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, Ca 91109 United States
AU: Dissly, R
AF: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., 1600 Commerce Street, Boulder, Co 80306 United States
AU: Nicks, D
AF: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., 1600 Commerce Street, Boulder, Co 80306 United States
AU: Kanizay, K
EM: kkanizay@ball.com
AF: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., 1600 Commerce Street, Boulder, Co 80306 United States
AU: Mone, C
EM: cmone@ball.com
AF: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., 1600 Commerce Street, Boulder, Co 80306 United States
AB: The potential of an Electrospray Ionization/Ion Mobility Spectrometer (ESI/IMS) either as a stand-alone ana-lytical instrument or as part of a suite of instruments on the proposed 2009 Mars Science Lander (MSL) for analyz-ing material extracted from rock and soil samples will be demonstrated. We constructed a miniature, self-contained ESI/IMS instrument which is presently undergoing feasibility testing as part of the Mars Instrument Development Program (MIDP). This instrument, which contains minimal moving parts and is very economical to construct, would be ideal for a small rover searching for specific organic molecules on Mars. The ESI/IMS instrument will be able to identify volatile compounds as well as resident organic molecules on the parts-per-billion (ppb) level both on and near the surface. Also, it will be able to obtain an inventory of salts, on the surface of Mars which will result in a better understanding of ongoing surface chemistry. ESI is a powerful ionization method. It can extract fragile organic species from solution intact, ionize them and transfer them into the gas phase where they can undergo analysis. A great advantage of ESI is its ability to provide soft ionization resulting in the ionization of non-volatile and fragile organic molecules with little fragmentation. IMS is a high-pressure time-of-flight (TOF) method based on elastic collisions of an ion with a buffer gas. It is advanta-geous over the other detection methods because it can operate at the same pressure as the ESI resulting in no differ-ential pumping when the ions go from ionizer to analyzer. Each species has an average drift velocity, which is pro-portional to the applied electric field and the ion mobility (K$_{m}$). IMS has been demonstrated to be very sensitive in detecting organic compounds, and is currently the instrument of choice for field detection of explosives and chemi-cal/biological warfare agents.
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
DE: 1055 Organic geochemistry
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting