Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) for a Future Europa Lander Mission

Brinckerhoff, W. B.; Willis, Peter A.; Ricco, Antonio J.; Kaplan, Desmond; Danell, Ryan M.; Grubisic, Andrej; Mora, María F.; Creamer, Jessica S.; Noell, Aaron C.; Stern, Jennifer; Szopa, Cyril; Freissinet, Caroline; Kehl, Florian; Zamuruyev, Konstantin; Castle, Conner; Spring, J.; Drevinskas, Tomas; Bădescu, Mircea; Santos, Mauro Sérgio Ferreira; Jaramillo, Elizabeth A.; Amerom, Friso van; Li, Xiang; Castillo, M.; Eigenbrode, J. L.; Theiling, Bethany; Quinn, R. C.; Stalport, Fabien; Buch, Arnaud; Zacny, K.

doi:10.3389/frspt.2021.760927

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The LIT (e.g., used in MOMA) is principally a miniaturized version of the Thermo LTQ XL (Thermo Fisher Scientific), with lower performance characteristics than its commercial counterpart due to miniaturization (Brinckerhoff et al, 2013). On one side is an EI source to interface with GC and on the Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences frontiersin.org opposing side is an inlet for ions generated by the laser ionization sub-system, which utilizes the DAPI technique to reduce the requirement of the vacuum pumps.…”

Section: Mass Analyzersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The instrument, including GC and laser ionization sub-system, weighs approximately 12 kg and provides unit resolution up to 500 Da (Goesmann et al, 2017). Recent developments of the same MS instrument have improved the performance to an m/z range of 20-800 with an FWHM of 0.5 Da over the entire range (Brinckerhoff et al, 2022).…”

Section: Mass Analyzersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the MOMA-MS only supports positive mode MS, the LIT can operate in both negative and positive modes with minor modifications (Li et al, 2019). The instrument is being repurposed for various missions concepts, such as the Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer (DraMS) that is planned for an aerial lander mission to Titan (Lorenz et al, 2018), the EMILI instrument suite comprising capillary electrophoresis (CE) and GC that is being developed as a contender for a potential Europa lander mission (Brinckerhoff et al, 2019;Brinckerhoff et al, 2022), integration with an Orbitrap MS in the Advanced Resolution Organic Molecule Analyzer (AROMA; Arevalo et al, 2016), and the Molecular Analyzer for Complex Refractory Organic-rich Surfaces (MACROS; Getty et al, 2017).…”

Section: Mass Analyzersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although ionization sources, compatible with liquid samples, are essential for many techniques in development (see Section 5), no hardware compatible with operation in a vacuum environment (while maintaining ~760 Torr in an ionization chamber) has been demonstrated. Additionally, ion optic interfaces with gradually increasing vacuum, from atmospheric pressure to vacuum levels required by MS analyzers, have just recently been interfaced with a flight-like MS (Brinckerhoff et al, 2022). Although these are standard techniques in the laboratory and portable instruments, they…”

Section: Mass Spectrometer Interfaces For Separation Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SCWE has gained particular popularity as an extraction technique for amino acids bound to their sample matrix (e.g., Amashukeli et al, 2008;Kehl et al, 2019;Brinckerhoff et al, 2022). The recovery of amino acids is influenced by desorption, hydrolysis, and degradation, which are all positively associated with increased temperatures.…”

Section: Subcritical Water Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In situ organic biosignature detection techniques for space applications

Abrahamsson

Kanik

2022

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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The search for life in Solar System bodies such as Mars and Ocean Worlds (e.g., Europa and Enceladus) is an ongoing and high-priority endeavor in space science, even ∼ five decades after the first life detection mission at Mars performed by the twin Viking landers. However, the in situ detection of biosignatures remains highly challenging, both scientifically and technically. New instruments are being developed for detecting extinct or extant life on Mars and Ocean Worlds due to new technology and fabrication techniques. These instruments are becoming increasingly capable of both detecting and identifying in situ organic biosignatures that are indicative of life and will play a pivotal role in the search for evidence of life through robotic lander missions. This review article gives an overview of techniques used for space missions (gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and spectroscopy), the further ongoing developments of these techniques, and ion mobility spectrometry. In addition, current developments of techniques used in the next-generation instruments for organic biosignature detection are reviewed; these include capillary electrophoresis, liquid chromatography, biosensors (primarily immunoassays), and nanopore sensing; whereas microscopy, biological assays, and isotope analysis are beyond the scope of this paper and are not covered.

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Section: Mass Analyzersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mass Analyzersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mass Analyzersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mass Spectrometer Interfaces For Separation Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Subcritical Water Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In situ organic biosignature detection techniques for space applications

Abrahamsson

Kanik

2022

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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A voltage trade study for the design of capillary electrophoresis instruments for spaceflight

et al. 2022

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Capillary electrophoresis (CE) systems have undergone extensive development for spaceflight applications. A flight-compatible high voltage power supply and the necessary voltage isolation for other energized components can be large contributors to both the volume and mass of a CE system, especially if typical high voltage levels of 25-30 kV are used. Here, we took advantage of our custom CE hardware to perform a trade study for simultaneous optimization of capillary length, high voltage level, and separation time, without sacrificing method performance. A capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (CE-C 4 D) method recently developed by our group to target inorganic cations and amino acids relevant to astrobiology was used as a test case. The results indicate that a 50 cm long capillary with 15 kV applied voltage (half of that used in the original method) can be used to achieve measurement goals while minimizing instrument size. K E Y W O R D Scapillary electrophoresis, contactless conductivity detection, high-voltage power supply, in situ analysis, spaceflight instruments Analytical instruments are crucial components of spaceflight missions of exploration. Among them, those focused on in situ chemical analysis offer a unique capability to assess the habitability of an extraterrestrial environment or ultimately to search for signs of extinct or extant life. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is well suited for these types of in situ studies, and CE methods and instrumentation focused on spaceflight application have been under development for over 15 years [1][2][3][4][5].

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A hydrodynamic injection approach for capillary electrophoresis using rotor–stator valves

et al. 2023

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Sample injection is a critical step in a capillary electrophoresis (CE) analysis. Electrokinetic injection is the simplest approach and is often selected for implementation in portable CE instruments. However, in order to minimize the effect of sample matrix upon the results of a CE analysis, hydrodynamic injection is preferred. Although portable CE instruments with hydrodynamic injection have been reported, injection has always been performed at the grounded end of the capillary. This simplifies fluidic handling but limits coupling with electrochemical detectors and electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry (ESI–MS). We demonstrated previously that injection at the high‐voltage (HV) end of the capillary could be performed using an HV‐compatible rotary injection valve (fixed‐volume injection). However, the mismatch between the bore sizes of the channels on the rotor–stator valve and the separation capillary caused peak tailing and undesired mixing, impairing analytical performance. In this work, we present an HV‐compatible hydrodynamic injection approach that overcomes the issues associated with the fixed‐volume injection approach reported previously. The performance of the CE instrument was demonstrated by analyzing a mixture of 13 amino acids by CE coupled to laser‐induced fluorescence, which showed relative standard deviations for peak area and migration time below 5% and 1%, respectively, for triplicate analysis. Additionally, replicate measurements of a mixture of amino acids, peptides, nucleobases, and nucleosides by CE coupled to electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry (CE–ESI–MS) were performed to evaluate peak tailing, and results were similar to those obtained with a commercial CE–ESI–MS setup.

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Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) for a Future Europa Lander Mission

Cited by 12 publications

References 42 publications

In situ organic biosignature detection techniques for space applications

In situ organic biosignature detection techniques for space applications

A voltage trade study for the design of capillary electrophoresis instruments for spaceflight

A hydrodynamic injection approach for capillary electrophoresis using rotor–stator valves

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