Phase One Construction of an In-Situ Mass Spectrometer

Long term goals for this project include deployment of mass spectrometers on network class autonomous underwater vehicles AUVs for in-situ detection, plus quantification and mapping of both volatile and non-volatile species in the water column. Ultimately we envision adaptation of our instruments as self-directed, true panoramic chemical sensors capable of, e.g., tracing dispersion of chemicals from point sources and investigating the evolution of reactive chemical species. The objective for this phase-one effort was to demonstrate, in the laboratory, the feasibility of using mass spectrometry as an underwater chemical sensor on an AUV. This effort was to include a demonstration of the viability of mass spectrometry to detect compoundselements of interest at concentrations found in the marine environment construction of an interface for transporting analytes from solution phase to the vacuum of the mass spectrometer evaluation of packaging requirements for deploying a mass spectrometer as an AUV payload and development of a scheme for maintaining vacuum inside the mass spectrometer while underwater.