Abstract

The determination of the elemental composition of lunar and planetary surfaces is a major concern for science and for resource utilization of space. The science associated with the development of a satellite or lunar rover mass spectrometer instrument is presented here, which would include a pulsed laser with sufficient energy to create a plasma on a remote surface. Ions are ejected from this plasma, which travel back to the spacecraft or rover where they are analyzed by a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, giving the elemental composition. This concept is based on the LIMA-D instrument onboard the former Soviet Union Phobus-88 spacecraft that was sent to Mars.¹

© 1993 Optical Society of America