The ESA mission Rosetta, launched on March 2nd, 2004, carries an instrument suite to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Anaylzer – COSIMA – is one of three cometary dust analyzing instruments onboard Rosetta. COSIMA is based on the analytic measurement method of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The experiment's goal is in-situ analysis of the elemental composition (and isotopic composition of key elements) of cometary grains. The chemical characterization will include the main organic components, present homologous and functional groups, as well as the mineralogical and petrographical classification of the inorganic phases. All this analysis is closely related to the chemistry and history of the early solar system. COSIMA covers a mass range from 1 to 3500 amu with a mass resolution m/Δm @ 50% of 2000 at mass 100 amu. Cometary dust is collected on special, metal covered, targets, which are handled by a target manipulation unit. Once exposed to the cometary dust environment, the collected dust grains are located on the target by a microscopic camera. A pulsed primary indium ion beam (among other entities) releases secondary ions from the dust grains. These ions, either positive or negative, are selected and accelerated by electrical fields and travel a well-defined distance through a drift tube and an ion reflector. A microsphere plate with dedicated amplifier is used to detect the ions. The arrival times of the ions are digitized, and the mass spectra of the secondary ions are calculated from these time-of-flight spectra. Through the instrument commissioning, COSIMA took the very first SIMS spectra of the targets in space. COSIMA will be the first instrument applying the SIMS technique in-situ to cometary grain analysis as Rosetta approaches the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, after a long journey of 10 years, in 2014.

(1) MPI fur Sonnensystemforschung, Max-Planck-Str. 2, D-37191 Katlenburg-Lindau; (2) MPI fur extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstr., D-85740 Garching; (3) von Hoerner und Sulger GmbH, Schlossplatz 8, D-68723 Schwetzingen (4) UNI/GH Wuppertal FB 13, Lehrstuhl f. Messtechnik, Fuhlrottstr. 10, D-42097 Wuppertal; (5) Inst. fur Weltraumforschung, Infeldgasse 12, A-8010 Graz; (6) Inst. fur Physik, Forschungszentrum Seibersdorf, A-2444 Seibersdorf; (7) Ingenieurburo Krueger, Messeler Str. 24, D-64291 Darmstadt; (8) Inst. fur Planetologie der Uni Munster, Wilhelm Klemm Str. 10, D-48149 Munster; (9) MPI fur Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg; (10) Laboratoire de Phys.& Chim. de L’Environment, 3 Av. De la Recherche, F-45071 Orleans; (11) Inst. D’Astrophysique, Bat.121, Faculte des Sciences d’Orsay, F-91405 Orsay; (12) Finnish Meteorological Inst., Department of Geophysics, Vuorikatu 15, SF-00101 Helsinki 101; (13) Universitat der Bundeswehr LRT-7, Werner Heisenberg Weg 39, D85577 Neubiberg; (14) ESA/ESTEC, NL-2200 AG Noordwijk; (15) Labor Chemometrie, Inst. fur Verfahrenstechnik, Umwelttechnik und Techn. Biowissenschaften, TU Wien, A-1060 Wien

The Austrian Research Centre Seibersdorf has been engaged in the development of indium liquid metal ion sources for scientific space applications like spacecraft potential control and mass spectrometry for more than ten years. It holds the unique record of more than 900 hours of operations of this type of ion emitters in space borne instruments. Two operational instruments carrying indium emitters are currently in space and three more are being prepared for launch in the near future. During the last three years the focus of research activities has been targeted onto the development of a micronewton thruster using the already space proven indium emitters. Under a contract with ESA the basic physics of the indium ion sources as they are relevant for thrust generation and characterization have been studied and an engineering thruster model is currently being built.This paper aims at introducing the indium - FEEPs to the worldwide LISA community for the first time and to give an overview of recent activities and advances.