P044-0004
Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) Technology Development
Friday, 11 December 2020
Poster
William B Brinckerhoff1, Peter A Willis2, Antonio J. Ricco3, Jennifer C Stern1, Andrej Grubisic1, Maria F. Mora4, Jessica S. Creamer4, Desmond Kaplan5, Ryan Danell6, Konstantin Zamuruyev4, Tomas Drevinskas4, Florian Kehl4, Friso H W van Amerom7, Brian Leiter1, Jennifer L Eigenbrode1, Richard C. Quinn8, Aaron Craig Noell4, Marco Castillo9, Cyril Szopa10, Caroline Freissinet11, Arnaud Buch12, Fabien Stalport13, Noel Grand13, Justin Spring14, Conner Castle15, Kris Zacny14, Xiang Li16 and Maëva Millan17, (1)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, United States, (4)California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (5)KapScience LLC, Tewksbury, MA, United States, (6)Danell Consulting, Winterville, NC, United States, (7)Mini Mass Consulting, Hyattsville, MD, United States, (8)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (9)NASA GSFC / ATAA, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (10)Université Versailles St-Quentin, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, CNRS, LATMOS Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Paris, France, (11)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Postdoctoral Program, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (12)CentraleSupelec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France, (13)LISA Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Créteil Cedex, France, (14)Honeybee Robotics, Pasadena, United States, (15)Honeybee Robotics Pasadena, Pasadena, United States, (16)NASA GSFC / CRESST, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (17)LATMOS Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Paris Cedex 05, France
Abstract:
The Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI), funded under NASA’s ICEE-2 program, is designed to meet and exceed the scientific and technical/resource requirements of the Organic Composition Analyzer (OCA) identified as a core instrument of the recently-studied Europa Lander mission [1]. EMILI tightly couples two complementary analytical techniques, based on (i) liquid processing with capillary electrophoresis and (ii) pyrolysis/derivatization with gas chromatography, to robustly detect, structurally characterize, and quantify the broadest range of organics and other Europan chemicals over widely-varying concentrations.
The Organic Capillary Electrophoresis Analysis System (OCEANS) of EMILI analyzes water soluble, non-volatile organics and salts using capillary electrophoresis following liquid extraction from ice/salt/mineral mixtures using a microfluidic sample processor. A laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detector provides extremely sensitive identification and quantification of the abundance and chirality of organic acids traversing the capillary, which is additionally coupled to an electrospray ionizer for mass spectrometry (CESI-MS) of the complement of water-soluble compounds.
The Gas Analysis Processing System (GAPS) broadly analyzes less-soluble, more-volatile organics (e.g., fatty acids) and gases using pyrolysis/derivatization and gas chromatography coupled to the same MS through electron ionization. The ion trap MS itself derives from the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) on the upcoming ExoMars rover mission. Focused ion optical and detector development for enhanced and robust performance in the harsh Europan environment has been supported by the COLDTech and ICEE-2 programs.
The parallel OCEANS and GAPS analysis paths enable EMILI to perform a thorough analysis of potential molecular biosignatures and contextual compounds, in samples received in reaction cells that enable conversion of delivered cryogenic fines into required analytical streams. These cells and associated sample receiving and processing subsystems interface with the current design of the Lander including the Collaborative Acceptance and Distribution for Measuring Europan Samples (CADMES) system.
[1] Hand K. et al. JPL D-97677 Europa Lander Report (2017).
