Abstract
The Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) is an instrument concept being developed for the Europa Lander mission currently under study. EMILI will meet and exceed the scientific and technical/resource requirements of the organic composition analyzer identified as a core instrument on the Lander. EMILI tightly couples two complementary analytical techniques, based on 1) liquid extraction and processing with capillary electrophoresis and 2) thermal and chemical extraction with gas chromatography, to robustly detect, structurally characterize, and quantify the broadest range of organics and other Europan chemicals over widely-varying concentrations. Dual processing and analysis paths enable EMILI to perform a thorough characterization of potential molecular biosignatures and contextual compounds in collected surface samples. Here we present a summary of the requirements, design, and development status of EMILI with projected scientific opportunities on the Europa Lander as well as on other potential life detection missions seeking potential molecular biosignatures in situ.
Highlights
Jupiter’s moon Europa holds promise as a potential abode of extraterrestrial life within its global subsurface ocean
Through a series of published experimental tests over the past several years coordinated by Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) subteams at GSFC, JPL, and ARC, we have demonstrated that the critical molecular reagents, including mass spectrometer calibrants, gas chromatography (GC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) derivatization agents, fluorescent tags, and other components in the Organic Capillary Electrophoresis ANalysis System (OCEANS) subsystem are not significantly degraded by the 300 krad total ionizing dose (TID) (Creamer et al, 2018; Freissinet et al, 2019)
We have shown that the performance of the reagents needed for both the CE separations and the fluorescent labeling of amino acid analytes are not affected by the radiation levels expected during the lifetime of a mission to Europa (Creamer et al, 2018)
Summary
Jupiter’s moon Europa holds promise as a potential abode of extraterrestrial life within its global subsurface ocean. While not seeking to detect potential molecular biosignatures directly, this investigation does provide critical data to help understand the likelihood that any molecular species found derive from the subsurface ocean vs from external, circumJovian sources, as well as the degree of radiolytic processing/ alteration these compounds may have endured Such information can be partially inferred from analysis of inorganic ions (such as salts) and gases Molecules separate according to differences in electrophoretic mobility (a function of charge/shape)
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