Large area mass analyzer

A new time-of-flight spectrometer for the chemical analysis of cosmic dust particles in space has been simulated by Simion 7.0. The instrument is based upon impact ionization. This method is a reliable method for in situ dust detection and is well established. Instruments using the impact ionization flew on board of Helios and Galileo and are still in operation on board of the Ulysses and Cassini–Huygens missions. The new instrument has a large sensitive area of 0.1 m 2 in order to achieve a significant number of measurements. The mass resolution M / Δ M > 100 and the mass range covers the most relevant elements expected in cosmic dust. The instrument has a reflectron configuration which increases the mass resolution. Most of the ions released during the impact are focused to the detector. The ion detector consists of a large area ion-to-electron converter, an electron reflectron and a microchannel plate detector.