Autonomous Underwater Sensing of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

"Ionfinity and its collaborators - the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Pace Technologies propose to develop an innovative, miniature and highly sensitive system to sample and analyze water and air in real time within the payload bay of an underwater platform.PaceTech is experienced in underwater sensing and has developed a patent-pending liquid sample acquisition system. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has invented the Soft Ionization Membrane and the Rotating Field Mass Spectrometer which, when combined, yieldan extremely sensitive and compact system for real-time detection of radioactive materials, chemical agents (including industrial chemicals) and biological warfare agents in water and air. The sensor can also detect explosives and narcotics. Ionfinnityis commercializing the JPL technology. Ionfinity has two patents pending and is collaborating with Beckman Coulter Incorporated to develop commercial prototypes. The proposed system will provide detection levels at sub-parts-per-billion (ppb) for manyspecies in a miniature, low-power package. The package and its components have many commercial applications including environmental monitoring, industrial process control, drug discovery and medicine.The Soft Ionization Membrane, which ionizes nearly 100% of the sample that passes through it without fragmentation, represents a revolutionary advance in the production of ion beams. Its immediate application is in the mass spectrometry market where,together with the Rotating Field Mass Spectrometer, it enables a 50x increase in sensitivity, a 50x reduction in size, and a 10x reduction in cost. In addition to the current $2B/year market for mass spectrometry instruments, the SIM enables a newgeneration of sensors for nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) warfare agents and for narcotics and explosives."