Am I going to get my sample back?

This is a legitimate question! After all, you worked hard to prepare that sample.

The answer is no, your sample is destroyed during the analysis. What happens? Molecules in your sample become ionized, enter the mass spectrometer, and eventually collide with the mass analyzer electrodes. Once a year or so, we open the instrument and clean off the electrodes.

On the bright side, we only need to destroy a small amount of your sample, less than a microgram.