Analyzer Control System (ACS)-A Software Package for Mass Spectrometer System Operation, Trouble Shooting and Protyping
No abstract available
Arkin, C. Richard↗
Engineering topics
Arkin, C. Richard
Publications and source records attributed to Arkin, C. Richard.
Space Applications of Mass Spectrometry
Mass spectrometers have been involved in essentially all aspects of space exploration. This chapter outlines some of these many uses. Mass spectrometers have not only helped to expand our knowledge and understanding of the world and solar system around us, they have helped to put man safely in space and expand our frontier. Mass spectrometry continues to prove to be a very reliable, robust, and flexible analytical instrument, ensuring that its use will continue to help aid our investigation of the universe and this small planet that we call home.
Hoffman, John H.↗
Gas Concentration Mapping of Arenal Volcano Using AVEMS
The Airborne Volcanic Emissions Mass Spectrometer (AVEMS) System developed by NASA-Kennedy Space Center and deployed in collaboration with the National Center for Advanced Technology (CENAT) and the University of Costa Rica was used for mapping the volcanic plume of Arenal Volcano, the most active volcano in Costa Rica. The measurements were conducted as part of the second CARTA (Costa Rica Airborne Research and Technology Application) mission conducted in March 2005. The CARTA 2005 mission, involving multiple sensors and agencies, consisted of three different planes collecting data over all of Costa Rica. The WB-57F from NASA collected ground data with a digital camera, an analog photogrametric camera (RC-30), a multispectral scanner (MASTER) and a hyperspectral sensor (HYMAP). The second aircraft, a King Air 200 from DoE, mounted with a LIDAR based instrument, targeted topography mapping and forest density measurements. A smaller third aircraft, a Navajo from Costa Rica, integrated with the AVEMS instrument and designed for real-time measurements of air pollutants from both natural and anthropogenic sources, was flown over the volcanoes. The improved AVEMS system is designed for deployment via aircraft, car or hand-transport. The 85 pound system employs a 200 Da quadrupole mass analyzer, has a volume of 92,000 cubic cm, requires 350 W of power at steady state, can operate up to an altitude of 41,000 feet above sea level (-65 C; 50 torr). The system uses on-board gas bottles on-site calibration and is capable of monitoring and quantifying up to 16 gases simultaneously. The in-situ gas data in this work, consisting of helium, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and acetone, was acquired in conjunction of GPS data which was plotted with the ground imagery, topography and remote sensing data collected by the other instruments, allowing the 3 dimensional visualization of the volcanic plume at Arenal Volcano. The modeling of possible scenarios of Arenal s activity and its direct impact on the surrounding populated areas in now possible with the combined set of data, linking in-situ data with remote sensing data. The study also helps in the understanding of pyroclastic flow behavior in case of a major eruption.
Diaz, J. Andres↗
Portable Mass Spectrometer Applications for In Situ Environmental Gas Monitoring
Primary Goal of this project is to (1) Design/build a flexible system to monitor air contamination (2) Learn requirements for operating system in low pressure and low temperature environments (3) Design/build system for integration into aircraft and automobiles Secondary Goals/Offshoots are (1) Fly aboard different aircraft (2)Hand-carry unit (3) Drive unit in automobiles.
Griffin, Timothy P.↗
Air Monitoring for Hazardous Gas Detection
The Hazardous Gas Detection Lab (HGDL) at Kennedy Space Center is involved in the design and development of instrumentation that can detect and quantify various hazardous gases. Traditionally these systems are designed for leak detection of the cryogenic gases used for the propulsion of the Shuttle and other vehicles. Mass spectrometers are the basis of these systems, which provide excellent quantitation, sensitivity, selectivity, response times and detection limits. A Table lists common gases monitored for aerospace applications. The first five gases, hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and argon are historically the focus of the HGDL.
Arkin, C. Richard↗
Air Monitoring for Hazardous Gas Detection
The Hazardous Gas Detection Lab is involved in the design and development of instrumentation that can detect and quantify various hazardous gases. Traditionally these systems are designed for leak detection of the cryogenic gases used for the propulsion of the Shuttle and other vehicles. Mass spectrometers are the basis of these systems, which provide excellent quantitation, sensitivity, selectivity, response and limits of detection. Unfortunately, these systems are large, heavy and expensive. This feature limits the ability to perform gas analysis in certain applications. Smaller and lighter mass spectrometer systems could be used in many more applications primarily due to the portability of the system. Such applications would include air analysis in confined spaces, in-situ environmental analysis and emergency response. In general, system cost is lowered as size is reduced. With a low cost air analysis system, several systems could be utilized for monitoring large areas. These networked systems could be deployed at job-sites for worker safety, throughout a community for pollution warnings, or dispersed in a battlefield for early warning of chemical or biological threats. Presented will be information on the first prototype of this type of system. Included will be field trial data, with this prototype performing air analysis autonomously from an aircraft.
Arkin, C. Richard↗
Evaluation of Small Mass Spectrometer Systems
This work is aimed at understanding the aspects of designing a miniature mass spectrometer (MS) system. A multitude of commercial and government sectors, such as the military, environmental agencies and industrial manufacturers of semiconductors, refrigerants, and petroleum products, would find a small, portable, rugged and reliable MS system beneficial. Several types of small MS systems are evaluated and discussed, including linear quadrupole, quadrupole ion trap, time of flight and sector. The performance of each system in terms of accuracy, precision, limits of detection, response time, recovery time, scan rate, volume and weight is assessed. A performance scale is setup to rank each systems and an overall performance score is given to each system. All experiments involved the analysis of hydrogen, helium, oxygen and argon in a nitrogen background with the concentrations of the components of interest ranging from 0-5000 part-per-million (ppm). The relative accuracies of the systems vary from < 1% to approx. 40% with an average below 10%. Relative precisions varied from 1% to 20%, with an average below 5%. The detection limits had a large distribution, ranging from 0.2 to 170 ppm. The systems had a diverse response time ranging from 4 s to 210 s as did the recovery time with a 6 s to 210 s distribution. Most instruments had scan times near, 1 s, however one instrument exceeded 13 s. System weights varied from 9 to 52 kg and sizes from 15 x 10(exp 3)cu cm to 110 x 10(exp 3) cu cm.
Arkin, C. Richard↗
Evaluation of Small Mass Spectrometer Systems
Various mass analyzer systems were evaluated. Several systems show promise, including the Stanford Research Systems RGA-100, Inficon XPR-2, the University of Florida's Ion Trap, and the Compact Double Focus Mass Spectrometer. Areas that need improvement are the response time, recovery time, system volume, and system weight. Future work will investigate techniques to improve systems and will evaluate engineering challenges.
Arkin, C. Richard↗
Evaluating Mass Analyzers as Candidates for Small, Portable, Rugged Single Point Mass Spectrometers for Analysis of Permanent Gases
For Space Shuttle launch safety, there is a need to monitor the concentration Of H2, He, O2, and Ar around the launch vehicle. Currently a large mass spectrometry system performs this task, using long transport lines to draw in samples. There is great interest in replacing this stationary system with several miniature, portable, rugged mass spectrometers which act as point sensors which can be placed at the sampling point. Five commercial and two non-commercial analyzers are evaluated. The five commercial systems include the Leybold Inficon XPR-2 linear quadrupole, the Stanford Research (SRS-100) linear quadrupole, the Ferran linear quadrupole array, the ThermoQuest Polaris-Q quadrupole ion trap, and the IonWerks Time-of-Flight (TOF). The non-commercial systems include a compact double focusing sector (CDFMS) developed at the University of Minnesota, and a quadrupole ion trap (UF-IT) developed at the University of Florida.
Arkin, C. Richard↗
Evaluating Mass Analyzers as Candidates for Small, Portable, Rugged Single Point Mass Spectrometers for Analysis of Permanent Gases
For Space Shuttle launch safety, there is a need to monitor the concentration of H2, He, O2 and Ar around the launch vehicle. Currently a large mass spectrometry system performs this task, using long transport lines to draw in samples. There is great interest in replacing this stationary system with several miniature, portable, rugged mass spectrometers which act as point sensors which can be placed at the sampling point. Five commercial and two non-commercial analyzers are evaluated. The five commercial systems include the Leybold Inficon XPR-2 linear quadrupole, the Stanford Research (SRS-100) linear quadrupole, the Ferran linear quadrupole array, the ThermoQuest Polaris-Q quadrupole ion trap, and the IonWerks Time-of-Flight (TOF). The non-commercial systems include a compact double focusing sector (CDFMS) developed at the University of Minnesota, and a quadrupole ion trap (UF-IT) developed at the University of Florida. The System Volume is determined by measuring the entire system volume including the mass analyzer, its associated electronics, the associated vacuum system, the high vacuum pump and rough pump. Also measured are any ion gauge controllers or other required equipment. Computers are not included. Scan Time is the time required for one scan to be acquired and the data to be transferred. It is determined by measuring the time required acquiring a known number of scans and dividing by said number of scans. Limit of Detection is determined first by performing a zero-span calibration (using a 10-point data set). Then the limit of detection (LOD) is defined as 3 times the standard deviation of the zero data set. (An LOD of 10 ppm or less is considered acceptable.)
Arkin, C. Richard↗