[meteorite-list] NASA Funds Scripps Instrument For Probing For Life on Mars

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:44:35 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200701111744.JAA17026_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/article_detail.cfm?article_num=768

Scripps Contacts:
Mario Aguilera or Cindy Clark
858/534-3624
scrippsnews at ucsd.edu

For Release: January 9, 2007

NASA Funds Scripps Instrument For Probing For Life on Mars

Detector to hunt for organic molecules during proposed 2013 mission
On Monday, NASA announced $750,000 in funding for development of an
instrument to detect signs of life on Mars proposed by a scientist at
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

The instrument is designed to provide the most rigorous analysis
possible for the past and present existence of biological compounds on
Mars' surface, according to Jeffrey Bada, a professor at Scripps and
lead investigator on the project team. Other principal scientists are
Richard Mathies of UC Berkeley and Frank Grunthaner of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena as well as researchers at NASA's Ames
Research Center in Menlo Park and the Leiden Institute of Chemistry in
the Netherlands.

Urey Instrument

Elements of the Urey instrument include the Mars Oxidant Instrument
(MOI), the Mars Organic Detector (MOD), the MicroCapillary
Electrophoresis Instrument (CE), and the Sub-critical Water Extractor
(SCWE).

Named after the late Nobel Laureate and UC San Diego scholar Harold C.
Urey, the Urey Mars Organic and Oxidant Detector will perform the first
search for key classes of organic molecules in the Martian environment
using state-of-the-art analytical methods at part-per-trillion
sensitivities. The Viking landers in the 1970s unsuccessfully tested for
organic molecules on Mars, but their sensitivity was so low that they
would have failed to detect life even if there were a million bacteria
per gram of soil.

"Urey will able to detect key molecules associated with life at a
sensitivity roughly a million times greater than previous
instrumentation," said Bada, a professor of marine chemistry and
director of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training in
Exobiology at Scripps. "It will be the first instrument to have the
capacity to detect amino acids, along with other possible biomolecules,
and determine their origin on another planet."

Urey has been selected for the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover
mission, a Mars exploration mission scheduled for launch in 2013 that
will focus on exobiology, the science of life in space and on other
planets. ExoMars will include a highly mobile rover with a drill capable
of extracting soil samples two meters below the Mars surface.

A compact instrument that you can hold in your hand, Urey will search
for trace levels of organic molecules, such as amino acids and some of
the components of DNA and RNA, by heating and analyzing spoon-sized
amounts of Martian soil. The molecules released from the heating are
condensed on a trap cooled to Mars' nighttime temperature, and then
probed with a laser.

If amino acids are detected, a device developed at UC Berkeley, called
the microfabricated capillary electrophoresis instrument. examines the
amino acid composition and chirality, or "handedness," of the molecules
to determine whether they come from biological sources. Non-biological
amino acids contain nearly equal amounts of left- and right-handed
forms, while those from organic matter exhibit excessive amounts of one
hand or the other. Amino acids on Earth use only left-handed amino acids.

"Testing for chirality provides an unambiguous way of detecting life,"
said Bada. "So if we see a significant excess of right-handed amino
acids, the only conclusion that's possible is: Eureka! We've detected
unique Martian life that's not related to Earth life whatsoever."

Bada indicated that digging deep into the Martian soil is vital to the
mission since ultraviolet and cosmic radiation have likely eliminated
any potential indications of life on the planet's surface.

"Humans are incredibly intrigued about the possibility of life beyond
Earth," said Bada. "We're at a moment in time when we are going to be
addressing this issue in the most robust way that's ever been attempted.
I think it is extra-ordinarily interesting that if we do detect life on
Mars, it not only provides us with an opportunity to try and understand
how life began on that planet, but also will help us understand how life
began on our own planet."

Development of the Urey instrument is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

# # #

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at the University of California,
San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for
global science research and graduate training in the world. The National
Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among
oceanography programs nationwide. The scientific scope of the
institution has grown since its founding in 1903 to include biological,
physical, chemical, geological, geophysical, and atmospheric studies of
the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide
range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The
institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of
approximately $140 million from federal, state, and private sources.
Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four
oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide
exploration.
Received on Thu 11 Jan 2007 12:44:35 PM PST