A LA-ICP-MS for Planetary Science

对行星体样本的详细分析是了解我们地球和更广泛的太阳系故事的核心。为此，已经开发了大量的专业仪器，其中许多现在用于更直接的方式-寻找资源，了解我们的文明对环境的影响，追踪化学物质在我们体内移动的途径，引起和治疗疾病。在每种情况下，当使用多种不同的技术来理解单个样本时，都会取得最大的进展。此外，从每项分析中提取最大量的有用信息以正确理解其含义至关重要。在曼彻斯特，我们拥有广泛的此类专业仪器，其中一些是世界上独一无二的，因为我们自己开发了它。在这份提案中，我们寻求资助一项技术，以补充我们现有的能力。该仪器使用非常短的激光脉冲来破碎样品表面上小于十分之一毫米的斑点。碎片被流过样品表面的气体携带到质谱仪中，质谱仪分析存在的元素。当这种技术的信息与我们其他分析技术的输出相结合时，我们将有一种新的和强大的方法来研究从太阳系第一个尘埃的凝结到像地球这样的行星形成的过程的性质和顺序。我们还将能够了解其他行星体的表面，特别是火星和月球，是如何通过火山过程形成和演变的。在整个太阳系的历史中，行星体一直受到小行星和彗星的撞击，人们认为这些撞击给早期的地球带来了挥发性元素和贵金属-通过这项新技术，我们将能够了解自行星形成以来添加到行星上的物质的性质，从而更好地了解使我们的星球适合居住的事件，事实上，适合复杂的生命。

Detailed analysis of samples from planetary bodies is central to understanding the story of our Earth and the wider Solar System. A huge range of specialised instruments have been developed to this end, and many of them are now used in much more immediate ways - seeking for resources, understanding our civilization's effect on the environment, tracing the pathways chemicals move through our bodies, causing and curing diseases. In each case, the most progress is made when multiple different techniques are used to understand a single sample. In addition, it is vital to extract the maximum amount of useful information from each analysis to understand its implications properly.In Manchester we have a wide range of such specialised instrumentation, some of which is unique in the world because we have developed it ourselves. In this proposal, we seek to fund a technique that will complement our existing capabilities. This instrument uses a very short laser pulses to fragment spots in the surface of a sample that are smaller that a tenth of a millimetre. The fragments are carried by a gas flowing over the sample surface into a mass spectrometer that analyses the elements that were present. When the information from this technique is combined with the output from our other analytical techniques we will have a new and powerful way of studying the nature and sequence of processes that led from the condensation of the first dust in our solar system to the formation of planets like the Earth. We will also be able to understand how the surfaces of other planetary bodies, especially Mars and the Moon, formed and evolved through volcanic processes. Throughout Solar System history planetary bodies have been pummeled by asteroids and comets, and it is thought that these impacts brought volatile elements and precious metals to the early Earth- with this new technique we will be able to understand the nature of the material that has been added to the planets since their formation, and so better understand the events that made our planet habitable and, indeed, hospitable to complex life.