ION MOBILITY SENSING OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL VOLATILES FROM A GAS CHROMATOGRAPH

A MINIATURE, SPECIALIZED, FLIGHT-QUALIFIED ION MOBILITY SPECTROMETER (IMS) WILL BE DESIGNED, BUILT AND DELIVERED TO IDENTIFY AND QUANTITATE ORGANIC VOLATILE EFFLUENTS FROM A GAS CHROMATOGRAPH (GC) AT CONCENTRATIONS OF 10(-14) MOLES PER SECOND. IN PHASE I, BOTH WATER AND NON-WATER BASED ION-MOLECULE CHEMISTRY WILL BE EXPERIMENTALLY OBSERVED BY A COMBINATION IMS AND QUADRUPOLE MASS SPECTROMETER AND MODELED MATHEMATICALLY TO DETERMINE OPTIMUM STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS. ALTERNATE ION SOURCES, INCLUDING ALPHA AND BETA EMITTERS, PHOTON ULTRAVIOLET LAMPS AND CORONA DISCHARGE WILL BE CONSIDERED. A DEMONSTRATION OF AN IMS FEASIBILITY MODEL USING A LABORATORY GC WILL BE MADE. THE PHASE I REPORT, THEONLY ITEM TO BE DELIVERED, WILL HAVE PRELIMINARY DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FLIGHT-QUALIFIED IMS SENSOR. IN PHASE II, THE IMS DESIGN WILL BE PERFECTED FOR OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE, A PROTOTYPE BUILT AND TESTED, AND A FEW UNITS DELIVERED. CONCURRENTLY, THE DATA BASE WILL BE PREPARED WITH THE SELECTED GAS CHEMISTRY AND THE PERTINENT VOLATILE COMPOUNDS. MEASUREMENT TIME, AS WELL AS WEIGHT AND SIZE OF FLIGHT HARDWARE, MAY BE REDUCED BY THE SYNERGISTIC USE OF IMS IDENTIFICATION WITH INTENTIONALLY UNRESOLVED GC PEAKS. THE FEASIBILITY OF THIS FEATURE WILL BE RESEARCHED IN PHASE I AND MAY BE PUT INTO PRACTICE TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE IN PHASE II.