  In the Solar System, extra-terrestrial organic molecules have been found on
cometary primitive objects, on Titan and Enceladus icy moons and on Mars.
Identification could be achieved for simple organic species by remote sensing
based on spectroscopic methods. However in situ mass spectrometry is a key
technology to determine the nature of more complex organic matter. A new
concept of mass analyser offering ultra-high mass resolving power of more than
50,000 at m/z 56 (under high vacuum condition about 10-9 mbar) is currently
being developed for space applications: the CosmOrbitrap (Briois et al., 2016),
based on the OrbitrapTM technology. This work challenges the use of
LAb-CosmOrbitrap, a space instrument prototype combining Laser Ablation
ionisation and the CosmOrbitrap mass analyser, to identify solid organic
molecules of relevance to the future space exploration. For this purpose a
blind test was jointly organised by the JAXA-HRMS team (Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry) and the CosmOrbitrap
consortium. The JAXA team provided two organic samples, whereas the
CosmOrbitrap consortium analysed them without prior information. Thanks to the
high analytical performances of the prototype and our HRMS data
post-processing, we successfully identified the two molecules as HOBt,
hydroxybenzotriazole (C6H5N3O) and BBOT,
2,5-Bis(5-tert-butyl-benzoxazol-2-yl)thiophene (C26H26N2O2S), with a mass
resolving power of, respectively, 123 540 and 69 219. The success of this blind
test on complex organic molecules shows the strong potential of
LAb-CosmOrbitrap for future space applications.
