This web page's content and links are no longer actively maintained. It is available for reference purposes only. NASA Official: Dr. Paul Mahaffy
 

The GCMS actually is two separate instruments combined: a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer. The combination makes it a very powerful scientific tool, and the instrument is the most complicated one the Atmospheric Experiment Branch has ever built. (Click here for an enlarged and easily printable graphic.)

Choose a link to read more about the GCMS:

• I would like to...



• ...learn about the structure of the instrument and look at the size and location of individual parts.

Go to the interactive diagram

• ...read about the scientific principles the instrument uses (includes an animation).

Go to the explanation of a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer

• ...learn about the design of the experiment.

Go to the GCMS descent sequence

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
• Mass spectrometer image courtesy of this page
• Gas Chromatograph image courtesy of this page

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Site Developer/Designer: Catherine Micek