BEING CHEMICALLY INERT NOBLE GASES ARE BEST TRACERS FOR UNVEILING THE ORIGIN AND CHRONOLOGY OF PLANETARY OBJECTS. NOBLE GAS ISOTOPES CAN BE TRAPPED AND/OR PRODUCED IN-SITU THE DISTRIBUTION OF WHICH REFLECTS THE INTEGRATED HISTORY OF THE MATERIAL. AS PREVIOUSLY REPORTED FOR LUNAR REGOLITH GRAINS EXPOSED ON THE SURFACE OF PLANETARY BODIES HAVE COMPLEX HISTORY AND CARRY MULTIPLE NOBLE GAS COMPONENTS. THESE COMPONENTS WERE RESOLVED BY STEPWISE HEATING GAS EXTRACTION USING RELATIVELY LARGE SAMPLE MASS AND WERE LATER CONFIRMED BY STEPWISE SURFACE ETCHING TECHNIQUE. GENESIS MISSION TRIGGERED DEVELOPMENTS OF LASER SURFACE ABLATION TECHNIQUE WITH ULTRA-LOW BLANK AND LOW-BLANK BULK OR LOCALIZED LASER HEATING IS ALSO AVAILABLE TECHNIQUE. HOWEVER NONE OF LOW BLANK METHODS ARE CAPABLE OF DETERMINING THE DISTRIBUTION OF NOBLE GAS ISOTOPES IN A SPHERICAL (I.E. SIMPLEST GEOMETRY) GRAIN. THE TASK CAN BE ACHIEVED BY INVERSION OF STEPWISE HEATING GAS EXTRACTION DATA. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP A LASER-BASED LOW BLANK STEPWISE HEATING GAS EXTRACTION SYSTEM FOR THE ANALYSES OF NOBLE GAS ISOTOPES IN RETURNED SAMPLES LIMITED IN SAMPLE MASS. DURING HEATING THE OXYGEN FUGACITY OF THE HEATING CHAMBER WILL BE CONTROLLED IN ORDER TO AVOID REDUCTION OF MINERALS. THE GOAL OF THE METHOD DEVELOPMENT IS TO INCREASE THE CHANCE OF DETECTING NOBLE GAS COMPONENT INDIGENOUS TO THE MINERALS OF RETURNED SAMPLES AS WELL AS TO QUANTITATIVELY DETERMINE THE CONCENTRATION AND ISOTOPIC GRADIENT NEAR THE OUTER SURFACE OF THE GRAINS TO ASSESS THE EFFECT OF SPACE EROSION AND ION IMPLANTATION. FOR DEMONSTRATION OF TECHNIQUE WE PLAN TO DETERMINE DIFFUSIVITIES OF NOBLE GASES IN OLIVINE PYROXENE AND OTHER MINERALS ABUNDANT ON THE SURFACE OF PLANNED SAMPLING SITES OF OSIRIS-REX AND HAYABUSA-2. THE PROPOSED WORK IS RELEVANT TO LARS PROGRAM AS IT IS IN LINE WITH ITS STRATEGIC GOAL TO MAXIMIZE THE SCIENCE DERIVED FROM PLANETARY SAMPLE-RETURN MISSIONS THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF LABORATORY INSTRUMENTATION AND/OR ADVANCED TECHNIQUES REQUIRED FOR THE ANALYSIS OF RETURNED SAMPLES AND DIRECT ANALYSIS OF SAMPLES ALREADY RETURNED TO EARTH .
$437,906FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA
University Of Chicago, Chicago IL