Orbitrap-HRMS for calibration of hypervelocity ice grain space detectors: OLYMPIA

The laser-induced liquid beam ion desorption (LILBID) experiment coupled with a time-of-flight (TOF) mass analyser, replicates mass spectra obtained from hypervelocity impacts of ice grains onto spaceborne instruments. LILBID has been used extensively to interpret mass spectra from Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyser (CDA) (Srama et al., 2004; Klenner et al., 2019), and has contributed to the characterisation of thousands of spectra collected during the mission. Thanks to the support of CNES, an Orbitrap-based laboratory testbench has been designed in collaboration with the Laboratoire de Physique et de Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace (LPC2E).

The Orbitrap anaLYzer MultiPle IonizAtion (OLYMPIA) instrument has been successfully coupled to LILBID, achieving a resolving power of up to m/Δm_FWHM ~ 100000 at 19 u for a 500 ms FFT. This far exceeds the capabilities of time-of-flight mass spectrometers (m/Δm_FWHM ~ 600-800), thereby enabling the interpretation of spectral features without complications from isobaric interferences (Sanderink et al., 2023). This high resolution is essential for aiding the analysis of data from Europa Clipper’s SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA; Kempf et al., 2025).

In the near future, the coupling of OLYMPIA with LILBID will allow for the expansion of the mass spectral database of LILBID-TOF measurements (Klenner et al., 2022) in support of both Europa Clipper and ESA’s L4 mission to Enceladus. Thus far, OLYMPIA has been capable of detecting H₃O⁺ and H₂O⁺; however, prior to recent modifications, these measurements could only be linked to high-energy ionization exceeding 15 km/s (Sanderink et al., 2023).

A known marker for low-velocity impacts is the presence of water clusters in a gaussian distribution (Timmermann et al., 1991; Klenner et al., 2019). The new set-up, with capabilities for delayed extraction to simulate different ice grain impact speeds in space, aims to detect these water clusters while retaining the high resolution that characterizes Orbitrap mass spectrometry.

Various modifications and optimisation of the instrument have been performed at the LPC2E, aided by their experience with the LAb-CosmOrbitrap instrument, in support of the development of orbitrap-type instruments for space exploration (CosmOrbitrap) (Briois et al., 2016). In this context, the analytical performance of OLYMPIA has been assessed through UV laser ablation of an olivine sample (Figure 1). The achieved mass resolution for the calibrant peak, ²⁴Mg⁺, reached m/Δm_FWHM ~ 225000 for 900 ms FFT (Figure 2).  We present these new results, as well as the latest results for both mineral and icy analogue materials, which can also be useful in supporting the development of the CosmOrbitrap.

 

[Figure 1] UV laser ionization mass spectrum of an olivine mineral using the OLYMPIA instrument.

[Figure 2] ²⁴Mg⁺peak’s resolution with 900 ms FFT duration.

 

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Sanderink, A., Klenner, F., Zymak, I., Žabka, J., Postberg, F., Lebreton, J. P., ... & Briois, C. (2023). OLYMPIA-LILBID: A new laboratory setup to calibrate spaceborne hypervelocity ice grain detectors using high-resolution mass spectrometry. Analytical Chemistry, 95(7), 3621–3628. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.2c04429

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