Advanced Ion Mass Spectrometer for Giant Planet Ionosphere, Magnetospheres and Moons
Résumé
We present our Advanced Ion Mass Spectrometer (AIMS) for outer planet missions which has been under development from various NASA sources (NASA Living with a Star Instrument Development (LWSID), NASA Astrobiology Instrument Development (ASTID), NASA Goddard Internal Research and Development (IRAD)s) to measure elemental, isotopic, and simple molecular composition abundances of 1 V to 25 kV hot ions with wide field-of-view (FOV) in the 1 - 60 amu mass range at mass resolution M/ DeltaM <= 60 over a wide dynamic range of particle intensities and penetrating radiation background from the inner magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn to the outer magnetospheric boundary regions and the upstream solar wind. This instrument will work for both spinning spacecraft and 3-axis stabilized spacecraft. AIMS will measure the ion velocity distribution functions (VDF) for the individual ion species from which velocity moments will give their ion density, flow velocity and temperature.