Quantitative compositional and chiral organic molecule analysis is key to understanding an extraterrestrial location including its history, habitability and potential for past or present life. Few…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $3,053,928.42 grant to the University of California, Berkeley for the advancement of the Enceladus Organic Analyzer (EOA) to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6. EOA is an innovative microchip capillary electrophoresis (CE) system with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection that can analyze the quantitative compositional and chiral organic molecules in extraterrestrial locations to understand their history, habitability, and potential for past or present life. The grant, which was not set aside, will enable the development of this powerful new approach for characterizing carbon chemistry in our solar system, including the non-statistical distribution of organic molecules and optical isomers that provide insights into the presence of extant or extinct life. The contract was awarded on August 29, 2017, and is scheduled for completion on May 11, 2022.

Quantitative compositional and chiral organic molecule analysis is key to understanding an extraterrestrial location including its history, habitability and potential for past or present life. Few high-TRL instruments exist that can achieve this important goal. The advancement of the enceladus organic analyzer (EOA) to TRL 6 will enable a powerful new approach for characterizing carbon chemistry in our solar system including the non-statistical distribution of organic molecules and optical isomers that tell US about the presence of extant or extinct life. EOA is an innovative microchip capillary electrophoresis ( CE) system with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection. The CE electrophoretically separates molecules with high resolution, and is very effective for analysis of organics having a wide range of sizes and complexity from a variety of solid, ICE or liquid sources. The integrated programmable microfluidic analyzer (PMA) enables reliable, flexible fluidic processing. LIF is highly sensitive with picomolar concentration limits of detection (the equivalent of only attomoles detected).