Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is an instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory ''Curiosity'' rover. The SAM instrument suite will analyze organics and gases from both atmospheric and solid samples.[1][2]

It was developed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA) (jointly operated by France's CNRS and Parisian universities) and Honeybee Robotics, along with many additional external partners.[1][3][4] The SAM suite consists of three instruments:

1.The Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS) detects gases sampled from the atmosphere or those released from solid samples by heating.[1][5]
2.The Gas Chromatograph (GC) is used to separate out individual gases from a complex mixture into molecular components. The resulting gas flow will be analyzed in the mass spectrometer with a mass range of 2-535 Daltons.[1][5]
3.The Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) performs precision measurements of oxygen and carbon isotope ratios in carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) in the atmosphere of Mars in order to distinguish between their geochemical or biological origin.[1][4][6][7][5]
The SAM also has three subsystems: the 'Chemical separation and processing laboratory', for enrichment and derivatization of the organic molecules of the sample; the sample manipulation system (SMS) for transporting powder delivered from the MSL drill to a SAM inlet and into one of 74 sample cups.[1] The SMS then moves the sample to the SAM oven to release gases by heating to up to 1000oC;[1][8] and the pumps subsystem to purge the separators and analysers.

质谱是比较容易出故障的设备，所以要上天，可靠性是最难的。有些质谱对CPU的处理能力要求太高，比如TOF，也是很难上天的，因为CPU的DIE电子线路复杂，很可能一个高能粒子敲一下就报废了。大部分的宇航级CPU都是8086水平的，最多也就486的样子，所以操作四极杆肯定是可以的，离子阱都比较困难——控制速度太快了。