Sensitivity and fragmentation calibration of the time-of-flight mass spectrometer RTOF on board ESA's Rosetta mission

Sébastien Gasc , Kathrin Altwegg , Björn Fiethe , Annette Jäckel , Axel Korth , Léna Le Roy , Urs Mall , Henri Rème (1) , Martin Rubin , J. Hunter Waite , Peter Wurz

1 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, with the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) onboard, has been following and observing comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko since summer 2014. Prior to this period, and due to a technical failure also during this period, optimization and calibration campaigns have been conducted on ground with the Reflectron-type Time Of Flight (RTOF) mass spectrometer as a preparatory work for the analysis of data recorded during the science phase of the mission.

In this work, we show the evolution of the performance of RTOF, and demonstrate and quantify the sensitivity and functionality of RTOF onboard Rosetta. We also present a fragmentation and sensitivity database for the most abundant molecules observed around the comet such as H₂O, CO, CO₂, as well as the noble gases.

Mots clés: Rosetta; ROSINA/RTOF; Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; Mass spectrometry; Fragmentation pattern; Sensitivity

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Sébastien Gasc, Kathrin Altwegg, Björn Fiethe, Annette Jäckel, Axel Korth, et al.. Sensitivity and fragmentation calibration of the time-of-flight mass spectrometer RTOF on board ESA's Rosetta mission. Planetary and Space Science, 2017, 135, pp.64-73. ⟨10.1016/j.pss.2016.11.011⟩. ⟨insu-03677086⟩