Signs of extraterrestrial life could be found close to our home on Earth. Researchers have hypothesized that the remains of long-dead microbes could exist within the crust of Mars and that microbial life could be thriving in the plumes of methane being expelled on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. To detect those signatures, researchers would need an instrument that can precisely identify complex organic molecules, biogenic minerals, and other biomarkers. Such an instrument would also need to be compact and lightweight, allowing for it to be blasted into space before moving onward to another planet.
Lori Willhite, a graduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park, and her colleagues have now made a miniaturized laser device that fits the bill [1]. Developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, the device uses an Orbitrap analyzer—a type of mass spectrometer that became commercially available for use in analytical laboratories in the early 2000s. In recent years, researchers have recognized the Orbitrap’s potential for applications in space exploration. However, at the size and weight of a household fridge, the Orbitrap is too bulky for space missions.
To make the analyzer amenable to astrobiology initiatives, the team drastically reduced the mass and volume of the Orbitrap by removing parts of the analyzer that are needed for laboratory experiments but not for space ones. In a lab, for example, a large pump is needed to keep the instrument at the low pressure it needs to function. But Mars and Enceladus lack substantial atmospheres. “The instrument is already going to be at the right pressure,” Willhite says.
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