P044-0005
The Organic Capillary Electrophoresis Analysis System (OCEANS) subsystem of the Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) Instrument Suite

Friday, 11 December 2020
Poster
Peter A Willis1, Maria F. Mora1, Konstantin Zamuruyev1, Tomas Drevinskas1, Florian Kehl1, Aaron Craig Noell1, Jessica S. Creamer1, Mircea Badescu1, Antonio J. Ricco2, Richard C. Quinn3, Ryan Danell4, Desmond Kaplan5, William B Brinckerhoff6, Justin Spring7 and Kris Zacny7, (1)California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, United States, (3)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (4)Danell Consulting, Winterville, NC, United States, (5)KapScience LLC, Tewksbury, MA, United States, (6)NASA, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (7)Honeybee Robotics, Pasadena, United States
Abstract:
The Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) is a three-NASA center collaboration in life detection instrumentation design funded under the ICEE-2 Program. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is the lead center, with responsibilities for the development of gas chromatograph and ion trap mass spectrometer (ITMS). NASA Ames Research Center develops liquid extraction module (LEM) and sample processing unit (SPU). The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is responsible for end-to-end liquid-based instrument testing and performance demonstration using Europa analog samples.

In this presentation we will provide a status update on the JPL-developed OCEANS (Organic Capillary Electrophoresis Analysis System) hardware module, and describe its integration with the full EMILI instrument suite. OCEANS has three different detection systems coupled to capillary electrophoresis separations (sample data shown in figure). Capacitively Coupled Contactless Conductivity Detection (C4D) is used for detection of ions and amino acids[1]. Capillary Electrophoresis Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (CESI-MS) enables mass spectrometric detection of amino acids, carboxylic acids, nucleobases, sugars, and complex organics up to m/e 800 in the Goddard-developed ITMS. Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) is used for the highest science return amino acid CE analysis method available for spaceflight (enabling parts-per-billion level chiral analysis of the broadest range of amino acid types, as required by the Europa Lander SDT Report)[2].

References:

[1] Ferreira Santos, M.S., et al., Electrophoresis, 2018, 39(22): p. 2890-2897. [2] Creamer, J.S., M.F. Mora, and P.A. Willis, Anal Chem, 2017. 89(2): p. 1329-1337.

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