Aliens in our solar system can't hide from this miniaturized machine.
, and shrinks it down to make it compact and light enough to fit on a NASA solar system mission. They also combine the improved Orbitrap with a laser, which can break up material from a planet’s surface to prepare it for analysis., University of Maryland geologist and co-author on the study. “The next-generation Orbitrap analyzer offers about 200 times improvements” in the detail of its measurements compared to older systems, she adds. It could fly on missions within the next decade.
. Offworld missions are often limited in how much they can carry to their destinations. One of these behemoth Orbitraps just would not fly. The new version, though, only weighs about 17 pounds.Plus, mission teams must often choose between one big component or multiple smaller tools. Selecting instruments for a space mission is “like choosing what tools you want on your pocket Swiss army knife,” explains, an aerospace engineer at Cornell University who was not part of the new study.
Before it can measure a molecule, the upgraded laser-wielding tool uses ultraviolet pulses to break up the compounds from a planet’s surface—such as rocks on Mars, the icy outer shell of Enceladus, or other interesting targets for possible life in our solar system. It then funnels them into the miniaturized Orbitrap spectrometer, where the sample’s composition is measured.
Building a fully functioning spacecraft is always difficult, but new instrument technologies like the improved Orbitrap expand the possibilities for future missions. “It’s always exciting to add a new tool to the potential spacecraft toolkit,” says Ulibarri. “And the Orbitrap is a particularly powerful tool.”
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