IN SITU LASER ABLATION SAMPLING ENABLES SPATIALLY-RESOLVED MEASUREMENTS (ON THE SCALE OF<100 MICRONS) OF INORGANIC AND ORGANIC COMPOSITION VIA BOND-BREAKING AND MASS REMOVAL OF MINERALOGICAL MATRICES AND DESORPTION/IONIZATION OF EMBEDDED ORGANIC CONTENT RESPECTIVELY. HIGH-RESOLUTION MASS SPECTROMETRY EMPOWERS THE SEPARATION OF ISOBARIC INTERFERENCES (CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS SHARING THE SAME NOMINAL MASS) INCLUDING ATOMIC (E.G. 54CR+ VERSUS 54FE+) MOLECULAR (E.G. 28SI16O+ VERSUS 12C16O2+) AND ORGANIC SIGNALS (E.G. PROTONATED PHENYLALANINE C9H12NO2+ VERSUS PROTONATED TRIAMINOPURINE C5H8N7+). IN COMBINATION THESE TWO ANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES OFFER UNPARALLELED POTENTIAL TO PROBE THE CHEMISTRY OF THE LUNAR SURFACE AND SUBSURFACE.

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators