The Development and Demonstration of the Portable Acousto‐Optic Spectrometer for Astrobiology in Cave Environments

Abstract

The development of in situ instrumentation for the detection of biomarkers in planetary cave environments is critical for the search for evidence of present or past life in our solar system. As refugia from the harsh ionizing radiation environments on the surfaces of airless solar system bodies or those with thin atmospheres, planetary caves represent a tantalizing location in which to conduct searches for extraterrestrial life (Viúdez-Moreiras, 2021). There are myriad challenges associated with investigations of planetary subsurface environments. However, once subsurface access is achieved, the exploration of planetary caves will require robust technologies with low size, weight and power (SWaP) in order to overcome the operational limitations of a small platform.The detection of extant or extinct life in planetary subsurfaces requires the identification of potential biomarkers, or signatures of physical structure, chemical composition, or metabolic processes associated with living organisms (Uckert et al., 2017). Broadly speaking, a wide range of both passive and active in situ techniques have been developed for and employed in the characterization of planetary surface environments in an effort to identify potential biomarkers. These techniques include (but are not limited to) mass spectrometry (