OLYMPIA-LILBID: High Resolution Mass Spectrometry for the Calibration of Spaceborne Hypervelocity Ice Grain Detector

In 2005, a new type of mass spectrometer was commercialised for the first time, the Thermo Fisher Scientific OrbitrapTM. Using a Quadro-Logarithmic Electrostatic Ion Trap technology, Orbitrap mass spectrometers are able to reach ultra-high mass resolution1. For a decade, the Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace (LPC2E) is developing a spatialised version of the Orbitrap, the CosmOrbitrap2, to bring this high resolution in space exploration. The CosmOrbitrap is intended to be the mass analyser and acquisition system of laser ablation mass spectrometers aiming for planetary bodies like Europa or the Moon3,4.In this context, OLYMPIA - Orbitrap anaLYser MultiPle IonisAtion – has been develop to be used as a new laboratory test bench, and is adaptable to different ionisation methods. After a successful study of planetary atmosphere analogues using Electron Ionisation (EI)5, we now coupled OLYMPIA with the Laser Induced Liquid Beam Ion Desorption technique to analyse liquid water samples. For example, LILBID is able to accurately reproduce hypervelocity impact ionisation icy grains mass spectra6, such as those recorded by the Comic Dust Analyser7 (CDA) onboard Cassini in the vicinity of Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus. The LILBID setup is usually coupled with a Time-of-Flight (TOF) mass spectrometer, with a mass resolution of ~800 m/Δm. By coupling the LILBID technique to OLYMPIA and its Orbitrap analyser, we are now able to record hypervelocity icy grains analogue mass spectra with ultra-high mass resolution. The setup is currently able to measure H2O+ and H3O+ ions with a mass resolution of around 150.000 m/Δm (FWHM), with the spectral appearance matching mass spectra of icy grains impact ionisation in an impact velocity range of 15 to 20km/s. Future work aims to simulate lower impact velocities below 15 km/s as they are typically expected for flyby or orbiter missions.Those results will be implemented in the LILBID database8, and will be useful for the calibration and future data interpretation of the SUrface Dust Analyser (SUDA) mass spectrometer9, which will be onboard NASA’s Europa Clipper mission10 to characterize the habitability of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. References1. Makarov, A. Electrostatic Axially Harmonic Orbital Trapping: A High-Performance Technique of Mass Analysis. Anal. Chem. 72, 1156–1162 (2000).2. Briois, C. et al. Orbitrap mass analyser for in situ characterisation of planetary environments: Performance evaluation of a laboratory prototype. Planet. Space Sci. 131, 33–45 (2016).3. Arevalo, R. et al. An Orbitrap-based laser desorption/ablation mass spectrometer designed for spaceflight. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 32, 1875–1886 (2018).4. L. Willhite et al. CORALS: A Laser Desorption/Ablation Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer for In Situ Exploration of Europa, 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference (50100), 2021, pp. 1-13, doi: 10.1109/AERO50100.2021.9438221.5. Zymak, I. et al. OLYMPIA - a compact laboratory Orbitrap-based high-resolution mass spectrometer laboratory set-up: Performance studies for gas composition measurement in analogues of planetary environments. https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-8424.html (2021) doi:10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8424.6. Klenner, F. et al. Analogue spectra for impact ionization mass spectra of water ice grains obtained at different impact speeds in space. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 33, 1751–1760 (2019).7. Srama, R. et al. The Cassini cosmic dust analyser. Space Sci. Rev. Volume 114, 465–518 (2004).8. Klenner, F. et al. Developing a Laser Induced Liquid Beam Ion Desorption Spectral Database as Reference for Spaceborne Mass Spectrometers. Earth and Space Science Under Review (2022).9. Kempf, S. et al. SUDA: A Dust Mass Spectrometer for Compositional Surface Mapping for a Mission to Europa. European Planetary Science Congress 2014, EPSC2014-229.10. Howell, S. M. & Pappalardo, R. T. NASA’s Europa Clipper—a mission to a potentially habitable ocean world. Nat. Commun. 11, 1311 (2020).