title: VISTA: A μ-Thermogravimeter for Investigation of Volatile Compounds in Planetary Environments.
abstract: This paper presents the VISTA (Volatile In Situ Thermogravimetry Analyser) instrument, conceived to perform planetary in-situ measurements. VISTA can detect and quantify the presence of volatile compounds of astrobiological interest, such as water and organics, in planetary samples. These measurements can be particularly relevant when performed on primitive asteroids or comets, or on targets of potential astrobiological interest such as Mars or Jupiter's satellite Europa. VISTA is based on a micro-thermogravimetry technique, widely used in different environments to study absorption and sublimation processes. The instrument core is a piezoelectric crystal microbalance, whose frequency variations are affected by variations of the mass of the deposited sample, due to chemical processes such as sublimation, condensation or absorption/desorption. The low mass (i.e. 40 g), the low volume (less than 10 cm(3)) and the low power (less than 1 W) required makes this kind of instrument very suitable for space missions. This paper discusses the planetary applications of VISTA, and shows the calibration operations performed on the breadboard, as well as the performance tests which demonstrate the capability of the breadboard to characterize volatile compounds of planetary interests.
authors.affiliation: IAPS-INAF, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Rome, Italy. ernesto.palomba@iaps.inaf.it.
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Palomba
authors.affiliation: IAPS-INAF, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Longobardo
authors.affiliation: IAPS-INAF, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dirri
authors.affiliation: IIA-CNR, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zampetti
authors.affiliation: IAPS-INAF, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Biondi
authors.affiliation: Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Bortolino
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Saggin
authors.affiliation: IIA-CNR, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bearzotti
authors.affiliation: IIA-CNR, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Macagnano
mesh_terms: D018534:Earth, Planet; D018559:Exobiology; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D018535:Mars; D013026:Space Flight; D013818:Thermogravimetry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds
keywords: Organics detection; Planetary in-situ measurements; Space instrumentation; Thermogravimetric analysis