MOrgAna for the detection of signatures of life within the Mojave Desert through NASAS PSTAR project TATOOINE

• Forschungsstelle: SBFI
• Projektnummer: P2024-UniBE TATOOINE
• Projekttitel Englisch: MOrgAna for the detection of signatures of life within the Mojave Desert through NASAS PSTAR project TATOOINE

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Universität Bern Peter Wurz TATTOINE SERI SEFRI SBFI SSO

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

In October 2023 the NASA Ames Research Center (PI: Dr. Mary Beth Wilhelm) submitted the research proposal “Testing Arid Transformation Of Organics via IN-situ Extraction” (TATOOINE) to NASA’s highly competitive Planetary Science and Technology from Analog Research (PSTAR) programme. PSTAR allows to test new technologies in planetary analogue sites before sending them on expensive in-situ planetary exploration missions. End of May 2024 the TATOOINE team was informed about the successful evaluation of the proposal (success rate for this solicitation was only 5%). TATOOINE is a three-year project starting 1st October 2024 and last until September 2027.
TATOOINE will visit a dry lake environment in the Mojave Desert, USA, several times per year to improve our understanding of the wet-dry process of biosignatures, their preservation in the subsurface, and their detectability by flight-ready extraction and mass spectrometric analytical techniques. Two novel instruments will be tested in-situ for the first time, which are the Extractor for Chemical Analysis of Lipid Biomarkers in Regolith (ExCALiBR, NASA Ames) and the Mars ORGanics ANAlyzer (MOrgAna). ExCALiBR is an innovative system that extracts and concentrates lipids from soil material.
MOrgAna is a mass spectrometric system that shall analyse the concentrated organic extract. UBE was selected to provide their mass spectrometric system ORIGIN for the seat of the MOrgAna instrument due to its high detection sensitivity for biological compounds and its versatility of operation. ORIGIN is a Laser Ablation Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (LIMS) system operated in laser desorption mode which is optimised for
bio-molecule detection.
NASA Ames is in the process of the preparation for a Mars mission, named Abzu (Discovery class mission), with the aim to focus on the detection of lipids, which are strong and robust signatures for life as we know it. In Abzu only technologies will be applied which so far have not been applied in previous missions, simply because the technology used up to now failed. On Abzu ExCALiBR and MOrgaAna shall be operated. As a result, TATOOINE is a pre-cursor mission on Earth to prepare for a potential application on Mars.

Projektziele (Englisch)

For mission preparation NASA Ames submitted end of 2023 a three-year research project to NASAs PSTAR programme. The project is named “Testing Arid Transformation Of Organics via IN-situ Extraction” (TATOOINE) and will conduct analogue research in the Mojave Desert, USA. TATOOINE is a pre-cursor programme for the preparation of the Abzu mission. Scientifically, TATOOINE will investigate the wet-dry process of biosignatures and their preservation capabilities in the subsurface of the Mojave Desert. This information will deepen our understanding in view of Mars exploration and subsurface presence of biosignaturers. For that purpose the field site will be visited few times per year and the sample material will be analysed in laboratories using state-of-the-art instrumentation, such as GC-MS and Ultra-high Performance Liquic Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS). Moreover, on the instrumentation side, two novel instruments will be applied and tested the first time in-situ at the Mars analogue site, namely ExCALiBR and MOrgAna for organics detection, which will increase their TRL from about 4 to 6. The scientific data generated through laboratory analysis serve as the ground-truth information for the two novel instruments operated in the desert.