Characterization of the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) chromatographic columns for organic matter inventory and enantiomeric resolution of amino acids on Mars with the ExoMars 2020 mission - INSU - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Characterization of the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) chromatographic columns for organic matter inventory and enantiomeric resolution of amino acids on Mars with the ExoMars 2020 mission

Résumé

The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) experiment will travel to Mars onboard the joint ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars 2020 rover. MOMA is a miniaturized chemical laboratory specifically dedicated to analyzing the organic and inorganic content of samples collected by the rover at the martian surface and subsurface down to 2 meters deep [1]. Through these measurements, MOMA will contribute to characterizing the potential past, present, and future habitability of Mars. MOMA will also go a step beyond habitability and will search for traces of life, or biomarkers, with its unique capability to separate the enantiomers of chiral amino acids, fundamental building blocks of terrestrial life [2]. To reach that goal, MOMA includes a gas chromatograph (GC) and a mass spectrometer (MS). Coupled together, these instruments will respectively separate the volatile compounds produced from heating or chemical treatment of the samples, and provide a spectral signature of each compound. This combination allows the identification of organic molecules. In order to achieve the separation of a wide range of volatile compounds potentially produced from sample treatment, the GC will include four capillary columns, each one dedicated to a specific range of chemical species. Now that the flight model of MOMA is finalized, and the range of operating conditions of the instrument under the Mars surface environmental conditions has been constrained, it is paramount to understand each column's general capability for detecting compounds of interest, and more particularly the specific capability for enantiomeric separation of the onboard chiral column. Evaluation of the column performance was performed on four capillary columns identical to those integrated in the flight model, and using a laboratory setting that allowed the reproduction of MOMA GC-MS operating conditions expected to be used on Mars. A set of chemical compounds of interest for Mars surface science and astrobiology was selected and analyzed with the four columns. The use of these chemical standards allowed the optimization of column operating conditions (flow rate and temperature program) based on peak resolution and separation performance. We show that under these optimized operating conditions the columns can detect a wide range of organic and inorganic volatile compounds, and we provide here a first overview of these separation capabilities, with a specific focus on the enantiomeric separation achieved by the MOMA chiral column. These results were tested and validated using two different martian analog samples which underwent the MOMA thermal and chemical treatment processes. This paper presents the performances of the MOMA GC columns and their capability to detect a wide range of compounds, specifically chiral amino acids, on Mars and under the constraints of MOMA operating conditions.
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

insu-04496975 , version 1 (09-03-2024)

Identifiants

Citer

Melissa Guzman, Francois Raulin, Arnaud Buch, Cyril Szopa, Fabien Stalport, et al.. Characterization of the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) chromatographic columns for organic matter inventory and enantiomeric resolution of amino acids on Mars with the ExoMars 2020 mission. 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Jul 2018, Pasadena, United States. ⟨insu-04496975⟩
4 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More