The Organic Capillary Electrophoresis Analysis System (OCEANS)

The most sensitive way to perform a chemical search for life on potential future spaceflight missions is by coupling liquid-based sample handling and separation with mass spectrometry and other detectors [1]. We have performed fully automated system-level demonstration of such technology on a simulated Mars mission [2] and subsystem-level demonstration in Earth orbit [3]. Here we report a capillary electrophoresis (CE) system, OCEANS, optimized for potential ocean world missions [4]. OCEANS searches for complex molecules and polymers, as well as biological patterns within the distributions of organic molecules, by coupling CE with: • conductivity detection of inorganic ions, amino acids, and carboxylic acids [5]; • electrospray ionization mass spectrometry of amino acids, carboxylic acids, nucleobases, sugars, polymers such as small peptides or fatty acids, and complex organics [6]; and • parts-per-billion chiral analysis of amino acids via laser induced fluorescence [7]. Importantly, OCEANS performs sample handling before analysis, to convert bound organics present into molecules that can be analyzed for biosignatures [8]. OCEANS is being developed under NASA-MatISSE funding as part of the Extraterrestrial Molecular Indicators of Life (EMILI) suite [9]. References: [1] Willis et al. (2021) Bulletin of the AAS, 53(4) [2] Mora et al. (2020) Anal Chem , 92, 19, 12959-12966 [3] Padgen et al. (2021) Astrobiology, doi: 10.1089/ast.2020.2305 [4] Zamuruyev et al. (2021) Anal Chem, 93, 27, 9647–965 [5] Jaramillo et al. (2021) Electrophoresis, doi: 10.1002/elps.202100134 [6] Mora et al. (2022) Astrobiology, 22, 914-925. [7] Creamer et al. (2017) Anal Chem, 89, 1329-1337 [8] Cieslarova et al. (2022) Geophysical Research Letters, 49, doi: 10.1029/2022GL098082 [9] Brinckerhoff et al. (2022) Frontiers in Space Technologies, 2, doi: 10.3389/frspt.2021.760927