The Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer of the Sample Analysis at Mars experiment onboard the MSL 2011 rover for the search of organic molecules on Mars

Details The Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer of the Sample Analysis at Mars experiment onboard the MSL 2011 rover for the search of organic molecules on Mars The Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer of the Sample Analysis at Mars experiment onboard the MSL 2011 rover for the search of organic molecules on Mars

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p51b1425s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P51B-1425

Biology

[5200] Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology, [5410] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Composition, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars, [6297] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

In past times, life might have appeared under Martian conditions milder than the present ones, and left some remnants at the surface. Even if this did not happen, prebiotic molecules may have been preserved in the soil, and they might be similar to those that prevailed on the Earth surface some 3.5 to 4 billion years ago. NASA’s MSL2011 rover will explore the surface and subsurface of Mars, seeking traces of prebiotic or biological activity. Organic signatures are among the main signatures of interest in this frame, and they will be among the main targets of the Gas Chromatograph Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (GC-QMS) which constitutes the core of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) analytical laboratory, developed by the NASA/GSFC. The main goal of this instrumentation is indeed to determine molecular abundances and isotopic ratios of organic molecules present in the collected samples, by analyzing gases either sampled from the atmosphere, or obtained from soil processing, either by physical heating or chemical reactions. This paper will present a first view of the analytical capabilities of the GC-QMS, with a focus on the GC part, which is the French contribution to SAM. Based on results obtained with laboratory tests performed during the development of the GC, and also on first tests performed with the engineering and flight models of the GC and QMS coupled together, we will show the capability for the experiment to detect and identify a broad range of organics, including large molecules of astrobiological interest and chiral organics.

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