Gas chromatography for in situ analysis of a cometary nucleus V. Study of capillary columns’ robustness submitted to long-term reduced environmental pressure conditions

Szopa, Cyril; Sternberg, R.; Coscia, David; Goesmann, Fred; Gomes, Raphael Fabbro; Legrand, Stéphanie; Jerôme, M.; Meierhenrich, Uwe J.; Raulin, F.

doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2014.09.075

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…Several tests and calibrations have been achieved on these 5 columns (Szopa et al, 2001(Szopa et al, , 2002a(Szopa et al, ,b, 2004. In particular their robustness for space application has been studied (Szopa et al, 2002a(Szopa et al, , 2014. Several examples of typical chromatographic analyses have been published previously (see Szopa et al, 2003, and references therein).…”

Section: Selected Test Results On Volatiles Complex and Chiral Organmentioning

confidence: 98%

COSAC prepares for sampling and in situ analysis of cometary matter from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Goesmann

Raulin

Bredehöft

et al. 2014

Planetary and Space Science

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Section: Selected Test Results On Volatiles Complex and Chiral Organmentioning

confidence: 98%

COSAC prepares for sampling and in situ analysis of cometary matter from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Goesmann

Raulin

Bredehöft

et al. 2014

Planetary and Space Science

Self Cite

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“…COSAC uses eight parallel capillary columns with different stationary phases coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer to analyze organic molecules in situ in the ices of the nucleus of comet 67P/C-G. Rosetta is the first space mission ever that is equipped with a chirality evaluation device. COSAC's five achiral stationary phases (Szopa et al 2014) and the three chiral stationary phases (Meierhenrich et al 2013) have been tested successfully for long term vacuum exposure. Particular interest has been given to the chirality experiment, by which COSAC will separate, quantify, and identify chiral organic molecules in cometary ices (Myrgorodska et al 2015).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anisotropy-Guided Enantiomeric Enhancement in AlanineUsing Far-UV Circularly Polarized Light

Meinert

Cassam-Chenaı̈

Jones

et al. 2015

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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All life on Earth is characterized by its asymmetry - both the genetic material and proteins are composed of homochiral monomers. Understanding how this molecular asymmetry initially arose is a key question related to the origins of life. Cometary ice simulations, L-enantiomeric enriched amino acids in meteorites and the detection of circularly polarized electromagnetic radiation in star-forming regions point to a possible interstellar/protostellar generation of stereochemical asymmetry. Based upon our recently recorded anisotropy spectra g(λ) of amino acids in the vacuum-UV range, we subjected amorphous films of racemic (13)C-alanine to far-UV circularly polarized synchrotron radiation to probe the asymmetric photon-molecule interaction under interstellar conditions. Optical purities of up to 4% were reached, which correlate with our theoretical predictions. Importantly, we show that chiral symmetry breaking using circularly polarized light is dependent on both the helicity and the wavelength of incident light. In order to predict such stereocontrol, time-dependent density functional theory was used to calculate anisotropy spectra. The calculated anisotropy spectra show good agreement with the experimental ones. The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which successfully landed Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014, will investigate the configuration of chiral compounds and thereby obtain data that are to be interpreted in the context of the results presented here.

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“…A potential risk associated with using reagents on a mission of exploration is that the instrument and spacecraft will experience a range of thermal and radiation environments during mission operations, which could potentially lead to chemical degradation. Despite this, very few articles have been published on the thermal stability testing of reagents for spaceflight as this type of data is more frequently used for internal decision‐making within instrument teams.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term thermal stability of fluorescent dye used for chiral amino acid analysis on future spaceflight missions

et al. 2019

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Future spaceflight missions focused on life detection will carry with them new, state‐of‐the‐art instrumentation capable of highly selective and sensitive organic analysis. CE–LIF is an ideal candidate for such a mission due to its high separation efficiency and low LODs. One perceived risk of utilizing this technique on a future mission is the stability of the chemical reagents in the spaceflight environment. Here, we present an investigation of the thermal stability of the fluorescent dye (5‐carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester) used for amino acid analysis. The dye was stored at 4, 25, and 60°C for 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years. When stored at 4°C for 2 years, 25°C for 6 months, or 60°C for 1 month there was no effect on CE‐LIF assay performance due to dye degradation. Beyond these time points, while the dye degradation begins to interfere with the analysis, it is still possible to perform the analysis and achieve the majority of amino acid biosignature science goals described in the science definition team report for the potential Europa Lander mission. This work indicates that thermal control of the dye at ≤4°C will be needed during transit on future spaceflight missions to maintain dye stability.

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Gas chromatography for in situ analysis of a cometary nucleus V. Study of capillary columns’ robustness submitted to long-term reduced environmental pressure conditions

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

COSAC prepares for sampling and in situ analysis of cometary matter from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

COSAC prepares for sampling and in situ analysis of cometary matter from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Anisotropy-Guided Enantiomeric Enhancement in AlanineUsing Far-UV Circularly Polarized Light

Long‐term thermal stability of fluorescent dye used for chiral amino acid analysis on future spaceflight missions

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