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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Laboratory studies with Cosmorbitrap in the context of future space missions to icy worlds

Résumé

Today, a number of community-driven space mission concepts have been dedicated to the exploration of icy worlds, particularly those orbiting the Giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. The investigation of such environments and their chemistry, including the dense atmosphere of Titan, the possible sub-surface ocean of Europa, or the plumes of Enceladus, is among the highest priority objectives of new space missions. Mass spectrometers are among the key instruments that will be embarked for the in situ characterization of those environments, but require a new generation offering, for example, higher mass resolution than currently available. A new mass analyzer based on the Orbitrap ^{TM} technology (extensively used in ground-based laboratories) is currently being developed, as a part a future development of more capable space mass spectrometers. The analytical cell is an ion trap (1) and its main assets are the high mass resolution combined with the design and the size of the analyzer (40 mm in diameter, 60 mm long). The Research and Development project is called Cosmorbitrap (2). This kind of instrument in space would provide us a very deep analysis capability of the chemical compositions of these moons. This work aims at evaluating the analytical performance of a prototype of the Cosmorbitrap with respect to the detection of organic molecules in a variety of Titan and Europa analog samples. Lab-produced tholins, analogs of Titan aerosols (synthesized with the PAMPRE experiment (3)), have been analyzed in addition to dilute aqueous amino acid mixtures. In the context of a future space mission, these measurements demonstrate the capability of the Cosmorbitrap mass analyzer to identify and study a wide range of compounds (pure and complex organics, inorganics, and biosignatures) with ultrahigh mass accuracy (less than 5 ppm with internal calibration, Indium in our experiments) and resolving powers (more than 100 000 at m/z 136 and 80 000 at m/z 431). Work on the accuracy of the measurements of isotopic ratios is ongoing. (1) Makarov, (2000): "Electrostatic axially harmonic orbital trapping: A high-performance technique of mass analysis". Analytical Chemistry, 72, 1156-1162(2) Briois et al, (2016): "Orbitrap mass analyzer for in situ characterization of planetary environments: performance evaluation of a laboratory prototype". Planetary and Space Science, vol. 131, 33-45(3) Szopa et al, (2006): "PAMPRE: a dusty plasma experiment for Titan's tholins production and study, Planetary and Space Science, vol 54, 394-404
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Dates et versions

insu-04445608 , version 1 (08-02-2024)

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Laura Selliez, Bertrand Gaubicher, Christelle Briois, Laurent Thirkell, Jean-Pierre Lebreton, et al.. Laboratory studies with Cosmorbitrap in the context of future space missions to icy worlds. 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Jul 2018, Pasadena, United States. pp.Abstract id. B5.3-60-18. ⟨insu-04445608⟩
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