Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer experiment

The Galileo Probe Mass Spectrometer (GPMS) is a Probe instrument designed to measure the chemical and isotopic composition including vertical variations of the constituents in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The measurement will be performed by in situ sampling of the ambient atmosphere in the pressure range from approximately 150 mbar to 20 bar. In addition batch sampling will be performed for noble gas composition measurement and isotopic ratio determination and for sensitivity enhancement of non-reactive trace gases.The instrument consists of a gas sampling system which is connected to a quadrupole mass analyzer for molecular weight analysis. In addition two sample enrichment cells and one noble gas analysis cell are part of the sampling system. The mass range of the quadrupole analyzer is from 2 amu to 150 amu. The maximum dynamic range is 10⁸. The detector threshold ranges from 10 ppmv for H₂O to 1 ppbv for Kr and Xe. It is dependent on instrument background and ambient gas composition because of spectral interference. The threshold values are lowered through sample enrichment by a factor of 100 to 500 for stable hydrocarbons and by a factor of 10 for noble gases. The gas sampling system and the mass analyzer are sealed and evacuated until the measurement sequence is initiated after the Probe enters into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The instrument weighs 13.2 kg and the average power consumption is 13 W.The instrument follows a sampling sequence of 8192 steps and a sampling rate of two steps per second. The measurement period lasts appropriately 60 min through the nominal pressure and altitude range.