The Mars Organic Analyzer or MOA has been developed with the goal of providing the Mars 2020 Mission with the capability to look broadly for organic molecules with the analytical sensitivity needed to characterize the habitability of environments, to characterize biosignature preservation potential, to search for evidence of past life, and to characterize samples for return to Earth.  The MOA will address these goals by determining the identity and concentration of organic molecules including amines, amino acids, aldehydes, ketones, organic acids, thiols and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Martian rocks and soils with sub-part-per-billion sensitivity.  This sensitivity will be achieved with an integrated instrument that first efficiently extracts organic molecules from Martian soils and drill fines using subcritical aqueous extraction (SCAE). The molecular extracts are passed to a microfabricated multilayer sample processor where the organic compounds are labeled according to their chemical functional groups with fluorescent reagents specific for amines, amino acids, aldehydes, ketones, organic acids and thiols.  The labeled (or naturally fluorescent PAHs) are then passed to a microfabricated capillary electrophoresis system for high-resolution electrophoretic separation followed by high sensitivity laser-induced fluorescence detection.  The dye-labeled organics are identified by their electrophoretic mobility and the PAHs are identified by their mobility and their fluorescence spectrum.  The coupling of efficient nonperturbative SCAE extraction, high sensitivity labeling and detection results in sub-par-per-billion detection limits that dramatically enhance our ability to perform in situ detection and characterization of organic molecules on Mars and other solar system bodies including moons and comets.  The laboratory development of the extraction, labeling, processing, separation and detection methods that make the MOA possible will be presented.  Also, the engineering design that integrates all of these functions for the analysis of up to 38 samples on the surface of Mars with a 12 kg, 5 watt, 22x22x29 cm package will be presented.

Mars organic analyzer: Methods and instrumentation for detecting trace organic molecules in our solar system

248th National Meeting (2014)

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