Time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis of pulsed laser ablation of pyroxene

Abstract

Pulsed laser ablation experiments on pyroxene rock have been conducted. A 1064nm laser with a 0.7ns pulse width is used to generate ablation in vacuum. The resulting plasma plume is characterized with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Pyroxene is a mineral commonly found in S-Type asteroids. Laser ablation generates thrust, and can be used to move an asteroid off of an Earth impacting trajectory, or to a more favorable orbit for in-situ resource utilization. In addition, time-of-flight mass spectrometry can be used for in-situ analysis of asteroids. From the data collected in this experiment, a two-dimensional distribution of the positive ions is found as a function of speed and mass per charge. From the distribution, the specific impulse of the positive ions is found to be 6920 s. This is an overestimate of the overall efficiency, since it does not consider efficiency losses or the speed of neutrals and larger particles.