ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Planetary Science
Application of a modified commercial laser mass spectrometer as a science analog of the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA)
Zachary Garvin 1
Anaïs Roussel 1,2
Luoth (Lu) Chou 3
Marco Castillo 3,4
Xiang Li 3
William Brinckerhoff 3
Sarah Johnson 3
1. Georgetown University, Washington, United States
2. Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Florence, Italy
3. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, United States
4. Aerodyne Industries, Cap Canaveral, United States
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Abstract
The ESA/NASA Rosalind Franklin rover, planned for launch in 2028, will carry the first laser desorption ionization mass spectrometer (LDI-MS) to Mars as part of the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument. MOMA will contribute to the astrobiology goals of the mission through the analysis of potential organic biosignatures. Due to minimal availability of comparable equipment, laboratory analyses using similar techniques and instrumentation have been limited. Until now, the Thermo LTQ-XL platform has been used as the main analog instrument by the MOMA team despite significant differences between the instruments. In this study, we present a series of modifications that bring this commercial benchtop LDI-MS closer to MOMA operating parameters, enabling rapid testing of samples for MOMA validation experiments. We demonstrate that our instrument can detect organic standards in mineral matrices, with MS/MS enabling structural identification even in complex mixtures. Performance was additionally validated against an existing LDI-MS prototype through the comparison of spectra derived from natural samples from a Mars analog site in the Atacama Desert. Lastly, analysis of Mars analog synthetic mineral mixes highlights the capacity of the instrument to characterize both the mineralogical and organic signals in mission-relevant samples. This modified benchtop instrument will serve as a platform for collaborative research to prepare for MOMA operations, test LDI parameters, and generate pre-flight reference data in support of the mission science and astrobiology specific goals.
Summary
Keywords
biosignatures, ExoMars, Laser Desorption Ionization - Mass Spectrometry, MoMA, Planetary instrumentation, Rosalind Franklin rover
Received
06 January 2026
Accepted
20 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Garvin, Roussel, Chou, Castillo, Li, Brinckerhoff and Johnson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Zachary Garvin; Anaïs Roussel
Disclaimer
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