IN-SITU ANALYSIS OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS BY GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY: APPLICATION TO TITAN, COMETS AND MARS

摘要

Gas chromatography is one of the most powerful techniques for the in situ chemical investigation of extraterrestrial environments. Its successful use in past planetary missions to Mars (1976-78) and Venus (1978-85) made it the main method selected for the in situ molecular characterization of Titan's atmosphere, comets, and probably Martian soil. This paper presents the gas chromatographic subsystems which have been developed at LISA, respectively for the atmospheric probe of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Titan, the landing probe of the Rosetta mission to a comet, and a proposed experiment including a Pyrolysis/Chemical Derivatisation-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (Pyr/CD-GC/MS) system able to carry out an in situ molecular analysis of the Martian soil. The analytical capabilities of these subsystems, with a particular emphasis on , their biological interests are described.