Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: As one of the scientific payloads of the Tianwen-2 Mission, the Volatiles Ion Trap Analyzer (VITA) of the Ejection Analyzer serves to detect the volatiles surrounding the main-belt comet 311P. Based on ion trap mass spectrometry, VITA is able to measure the chemical composition and concentration of volatiles. The crucial information obtained with VITA will facilitate the research on 311P including its formation and activity mechanism. To accomplish the challenging objectives of in-situ volatile analysis for 311P, VITA has a very compact design and extremely high sensitivity as well as the ability to operate in an automatic fashion. Calibration of the flight model results in a mass range of 1‒182 amu, a mass resolution better than 0.5 amu and a sensitivity of 1.1×10−4 ct/s/(1/cm3) for 20Ne at 5.8×10−10 Pa. The detectable volatiles and dynamic range fulfill performance requirements as well.
Authors: Ranran LIU, Hu XU, Yongshuai YANG, Xiaohua ZHANG, Qin ZHOU, Huaiyu HE, Huaihang HE, Hongguang XU, Jiarong ZHANG, Zifa WANG
Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Language: English
Subfield: Spectroscopy
Field: Chemistry
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4407982807