The ORIGIN Space Instrument for Detecting Biosignatures and Habitability Indicators on a Venus Life Finder Mission

Abstract

Recent and past observations of chemical and physical peculiarities in the atmosphere of Venus have renewed speculations about the existence of life in its clouds. To find signs of Venusian life, a dedicated astrobiological space exploration mission is required, and for this reason the Venus Life Finder mission is currently being prepared. A Venus Life Finder mission will require dedicated and specialized instruments to hunt for biosignatures and habitability indicators. In this contribution, we present the ORIGIN space instrument, a laser desorption/laser ablation ionization mass spectrometer. This instrument is designed to detect large, non-volatile molecules, specifically biomolecules such as amino acids and lipids. At the same time, it can also be used in ablation mode for elemental composition analysis. Recent studies with this space prototype instrument of amino acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, lipids, salts, metals, sulphur isotopes, and microbial elemental composition are discussed in the context of studies of biosignatures and habitability indicators in Venus’s atmosphere. The implementation of the ORIGIN instrument into a Venus Life Finder mission is discussed, emphasizing the low weight and low power consumption of the instrument. An instrument design and sample handling system are presented that make optimal use of the capabilities of this instrument. ORIGIN is a highly versatile instrument with proven capabilities to investigate and potentially resolve many of the outstanding questions about the atmosphere of Venus and the presence of life in its clouds.

Venus Life Finder Missions Motivation and Summary

“…Many of the desired instruments do not fit with the small balloon payload mass and need more development time to mature to flight readiness. For example, a laser desorption mass spectrometer is a powerful tool for the non-pyrolyzed identification of a wide variety of compounds [38,39]. A Fluid-Screen particle concentrator can capture enough particles for a microscope focal plane [40].…”

Venus Life Finder Habitability Mission: Motivation, Science Objectives, and Instrumentation

“…Two example LDMS instruments being designed for space are CORALS [52] and ORIGIN [53,54]. These instruments can detect trace levels (~fmol) of complex organic compounds (>200 Da) from chemically diverse samples without prior knowledge of the sample chemical composition-a feature crucial for chemical characterization of the unknown environment of the clouds of Venus.…”

“…These instruments can detect trace levels (~fmol) of complex organic compounds (>200 Da) from chemically diverse samples without prior knowledge of the sample chemical composition-a feature crucial for chemical characterization of the unknown environment of the clouds of Venus. The LDMS has a high vacuum chamber (with vacuum levels required at 5 × 10 −8 mbar [54]) for sample analysis, introducing a major design challenge for any sample delivery system. A third LDMS instrument is the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument planned for the ExoMars rover [55].…”

Detecting Lipids on Planetary Surfaces with Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry

“…Recently, our group developed a space prototype laser desorption ionization mass spectrometric system for the detection of biomolecules, called the ORganics Information Gathering INstrument (ORIGIN; Ligterink et al 2020a). Previous studies using ORIGIN focused on the analysis of amino acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; Ligterink et al 2020aLigterink et al , 2022Kipfer et al 2022;Schwander et al 2022). Unique and simple mass fragmentation patterns were observed for the amino acids, allowing for robust identification and quantification, while limited fragmentation for PAHs was observed and parent ions were identified.…”

“…In addition, identification of amino acids in complex natural samples was investigated using a correlation network analysis method to separate amino acid signatures from soil signatures (Schwander et al 2022). The versatile capabilities of ORIGIN with respect to implementing the technique on a Venus Life Finder mission and other future mission opportunities have been discussed as well (Ligterink et al 2022).…”