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

Seager, Sara; Petkowski, Janusz J.; Carr, Christopher E.; Saikia, Sarag J.; Agrawal, Rachana; Buchanan, Weston P.; Grinspoon, David; Weber, Monika; Klupar, Pete; Worden, Simon P.; Iakubivskyi, Iaroslav; Pajusalu, Mihkel; Kaasik, Laila

doi:10.3390/aerospace9110733

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…The Rocket Lab mission will deliver a probe containing one instrument, the autofluorescence nephelometer, to search for autofluorescence (and backscattered polarized radiation) in the Venus cloud droplets, indicative of organic molecules, especially aromatic ring systems (62). More sophisticated future missions (63)(64)(65), can then identify organics if they are present (66). Ultimately a sample return from the Venus atmosphere may be needed to robustly identify life, if present (67).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus’ clouds

Seager,

Petkowski,

Seager

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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What constitutes a habitable planet is a frontier to be explored and requires pushing the boundaries of our terracentric viewpoint for what we deem to be a habitable environment. Despite Venus’ 700 K surface temperature being too hot for any plausible solvent and most organic covalent chemistry, Venus’ cloud-filled atmosphere layers at 48 to 60 km above the surface hold the main requirements for life: suitable temperatures for covalent bonds; an energy source (sunlight); and a liquid solvent. Yet, the Venus clouds are widely thought to be incapable of supporting life because the droplets are composed of concentrated liquid sulfuric acid—an aggressive solvent that is assumed to rapidly destroy most biochemicals of life on Earth. Recent work, however, demonstrates that a rich organic chemistry can evolve from simple precursor molecules seeded into concentrated sulfuric acid, a result that is corroborated by domain knowledge in industry that such chemistry leads to complex molecules, including aromatics. We aim to expand the set of molecules known to be stable in concentrated sulfuric acid. Here, we show that nucleic acid bases adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine, and uracil, as well as 2,6-diaminopurine and the “core” nucleic acid bases purine and pyrimidine, are stable in sulfuric acid in the Venus cloud temperature and sulfuric acid concentration range, using UV spectroscopy and combinations of 1D and 2D 1 H 13 C 15 N NMR spectroscopy. The stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid advances the idea that chemistry to support life may exist in the Venus cloud particle environment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus’ clouds

Seager,

Petkowski,

Seager

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…For the Venus Life Finder (VLF) [23], we envision an FS Chip configuration, a complex FS System with microfluidics and an autofluorescence microscope (Section 3) that is suitable for the VLF missions that have a larger payload allowance (e.g., Venus Airborne Investigation of Habitability and Life (VAIHL) mission described in [23], as well as in companion papers in the same issue [24][25][26][27]). We describe the FS Chip configuration below.…”

Section: Motivation For Utilization Of Fluid-screen System In the Exp...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10 milliliters of liquid in lower clouds per day of sampling and less than 0.5 milliliters per day in upper cloud layers. Under such assumptions, one milliliter of collected liquid contains 10⁹-10 13 droplets [27].…”

Section: Predicted Scientific Outcome For Venus Vaihl Missionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct In-Situ Capture, Separation and Visualization of Biological Particles with Fluid-Screen in the Context of Venus Life Finder Mission Concept Study

Weber

Petkowski²,

Weber

2022

Aerospace

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Evidence of chemical disequilibria and other anomalous observations in the Venusian atmosphere motivate the search for life within the planet’s temperate clouds. To find signs of a Venusian aerial biosphere, a dedicated astrobiological space mission is required. Venus Life Finder (VLF) missions encompass unique mission concepts with specialized instruments to search for habitability indicators, biosignatures and even life itself. A key in the search for life is direct capture, concentration and visualization of particles of biological potential. Here, we present a short overview of Fluid-Screen (FS) technology, a recent advancement in the dielectrophoretic (DEP) microbial particle capture, concentration and separation. Fluid-Screen is capable of capturing and separating biochemically diverse particles, including multicellular molds, eukaryotic cells, different species of bacteria and even viruses, based on particle dielectric properties. In this short communication, we discuss the possible implementation of Fluid-Screen in the context of the Venus Life Finder (VLF) missions, emphasizing the unique science output of the Fluid-Screen instrument. FS can be coupled with other highly sophisticated instruments such as an autofluorescence microscope or a laser desorption mass spectrometer (LDMS). We discuss possible configurations of Fluid-Screen that upon modification and testing, could be adapted for Venus. We discuss the unique science output of the Fluid-Screen technology that can capture biological particles in their native state and hold them in the focal plane of the microscope for the direct imaging of the captured material. We discuss the challenges for the proposed method posed by the concentrated sulfuric acid environment of Venus’ clouds. While Venus’ clouds are a particularly challenging environment, other bodies of the solar system, e.g., with liquid water present, might be especially suitable for Fluid-Screen application.

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“…This characteristic, in contrast to Earth, makes the Venusian cloud environment stable and predictable. Due to its stability and clement temperatures the Venusian cloud environment has been considered as a potentially suitable abode for life (e.g.,: [13,[21][22][23][24][25][26]) and is a target for astrobiologically motivated space missions [27][28][29], such as the Rocket Lab mission to Venus [30] or the Venus Life Finder [31][32][33][34][35]. The clouds of Venus nonetheless pose severe and unique environmental challenges for Earth-like life [24].…”

Section: Venus: a Challenging Environment For Life As We Know Itmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Experimental Approach to Inform Venus Astrobiology Mission Design and Science Objectives

et al. 2022

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Exploring how life is distributed in the universe is an extraordinary interdisciplinary challenge, but increasingly subject to testable hypotheses. Biology has emerged and flourished on at least one planet, and that renders the search for life elsewhere a scientific question. We cannot hope to travel to exoplanets in pursuit of other life even if we identify convincing biosignatures, but we do have direct access to planets and moons in our solar system. It is therefore a matter of deep astrobiological interest to study their histories and environments, whether or not they harbor life, and better understand the constraints that delimit the emergence and persistence of biology in any context. In this perspective, we argue that targeted chemistry- and biology-inspired experiments are informative to the development of instruments for space missions, and essential for interpreting the data they generate. This approach is especially useful for studying Venus because if it were an exoplanet we would categorize it as Earth-like based on its mass and orbital distance, but its atmosphere and surface are decidedly not Earth-like. Here, we present a general justification for exploring the solar system from an astrobiological perspective, even destinations that may not harbor life. We introduce the extreme environments of Venus, and argue that rigorous and observation-driven experiments can guide instrument development for imminent missions to the Venusian clouds. We highlight several specific examples, including the study of organic chemistry under extreme conditions, and harnessing the fluorescent properties of molecules to make a variety of otherwise challenging measurements.

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

Cited by 8 publications

References 53 publications

Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus’ clouds

Stability of nucleic acid bases in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venus’ clouds

Direct In-Situ Capture, Separation and Visualization of Biological Particles with Fluid-Screen in the Context of Venus Life Finder Mission Concept Study

An Experimental Approach to Inform Venus Astrobiology Mission Design and Science Objectives

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