Search

Space experiments are a technically challenging but a scientifically important part of astrobiology and astrochemistry research. The International Space Station (ISS) is an excellent example of a highly successful and long-lasting research platform for experiments in space, that has provided a wealth of scientific data over the last two decades. However, future space platforms present new opportunities to conduct experiments with the potential to address key topics in astrobiology and astrochemistry. In this perspective, the European Space Agency (ESA) Topical Team Astrobiology and Astrochemistry (with feedback from the wider scientific community) identifies a number of key topics and summarizes the 2021 "ESA SciSpacE Science Community White Paper" for astrobiology and astrochemistry. We highlight recommendations for the development and implementation of future experiments, discuss types of in situ measurements, experimental parameters, exposure scenarios and orbits, and identify knowledge gaps and how to advance scientific utilization of future space-exposure platforms that are either currently under development or in an advanced planning stage. In addition to the ISS, these platforms include CubeSats and SmallSats, as well as larger platforms such as the Lunar Orbital Gateway. We also provide an outlook for in situ experiments on the Moon and Mars, and welcome new possibilities to support the search for exoplanets and potential biosignatures within and beyond our solar system., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments onboard the Exomars 2022 and Mars Science Laboratory rovers, respectively, are capable of organic matter detection and differentiating potentially biogenic from abiotic organics in martian samples. To identify organics, both these instruments utilize pyrolysis-gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, and the thermochemolysis agent tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) is also used to increase organic volatility. However, the reactivity and efficiency of TMAH thermochemolysis are affected by the presence of calcium perchlorate on the martian surface. In this study, we determined the products of TMAH pyrolysis in the presence and absence of calcium perchlorate at different heating rates (flash pyrolysis and SAM-like ramp pyrolysis with a 35°C·min -1 heating rate). The decomposition mechanism of TMAH pyrolysis in the presence of calcium perchlorate was studied by using stepped pyrolysis. Moreover, the effect of calcium perchlorate (at Mars-relevant concentrations) on the recovery rate of fatty acids with TMAH thermochemolysis was studied. Results demonstrate that flash pyrolysis yields more diversity and greater abundances of TMAH thermochemolysis products than does the SAM-like ramp pyrolysis method. There is no obvious effect of calcium perchlorate on TMAH degradation when the [ClO 4 - ] is lower than 10 weight percent (wt %). Most importantly, the presence of calcium perchlorate does not significantly impact the recovery rate of fatty acids with TMAH thermochemolysis under laboratory conditions, which is promising for the detection of fatty acids via TMAH thermochemolysis with the SAM and MOMA instruments on Mars.

The search for organic molecules at the surface of Mars is a key objective in astrobiology, given that many organic compounds are possible biosignatures and their presence is of interest with regard to the habitability of Mars. Current environmental conditions at the martian surface are harsh and affect the stability of organic molecules. For this reason, and because current and future Mars rovers collect samples from the upper surface layer, it is important to assess the fate of organic molecules under the conditions at the martian surface. Here, we present an experimental study of the evolution of uracil when exposed to UV radiation, pressure, and temperature conditions representative of the surface of Mars. Uracil was selected because it is a nucleobase that composes RNA, and it has been detected in interplanetary bodies that could be the exogenous source of this molecule by meteoritic delivery to the surface of Mars. Our results show that the experimental quantum efficiency of photodecomposition of uracil is 0.16 ± 0.14 molecule/photon. Although these results suggest that uracil is quickly photodegraded when directly exposed to UV light on Mars, such exposure produces dimers that are more stable over time than the monomer. The identified dimers could be targets of interest for current and future Mars space missions.

The instrument COSIMA (COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer) onboard of the European Space Agency mission Rosetta collected and analyzed dust particles in the neighborhood of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The chemical composition of the particle surfaces was characterized by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. A set of 2213 spectra has been selected, and relative abundances for CH-containing positive ions as well as positive elemental ions define a set of multivariate data with nine variables. Evaluation by complementary chemometric techniques shows different compositions of sample groups collected during two periods of the mission. The first period was August to November 2014 (far from the Sun); the second period was January 2015 to February 2016 (nearer to the Sun). The applied data evaluation methods consider the compositional nature of the mass spectral data and comprise robust principal component analysis as well as classification with discriminant partial least squares regression, k -nearest neighbor search, and random forest decision trees. The results indicate a high importance of the relative abundances of the secondary ions C + and Fe + for the group separation and demonstrate an enhanced content of carbon-containing substances in samples collected in the period with smaller distances to the Sun., (© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Chemometrics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Some microarray-based instruments that use bioaffinity receptors such as antibodies or aptamers are under development to detect signatures of past or present life on planetary bodies. Studying the resistance of such instruments against space constraints and cosmic rays in particular is a prerequisite. We used several ground-based facilities to study the resistance of aptamers to various types of particles (protons, electrons, neutrons, and carbon ions) at different energies and fluences. We also tested the resistance of aptamers during the EXPOSE-R2 mission outside the International Space Station (ISS). The accumulated dose measured after the 588 days of this mission (220 mGy) corresponds to the accumulated dose that can be expected during a mission to Mars. We found that the recognition ability of fluorescently labeled aptamers was not significantly affected during short-term exposure experiments taking into account only one type of radiation at a time. However, we demonstrated that the same fluorescent dye was significantly affected by temperature variations (-21°C to +58°C) and storage throughout the entirety of the ISS experiment (60% of signal loss). This induced a large variability of aptamer signal in our analysis. However, we found that >50% of aptamers were still functional after the whole EXPOSE-R2 mission. We conclude that aptamer-based instruments are well suited for in situ analysis on planetary bodies, but the detection step requires additional investigations.

EXPOSE facilities were ESA multiuser facilities mounted outside the International Space Station for astrobiology experiments. Between 2008 and 2016, three series of experiments were conducted involving chemical and biological samples to test their resistance and evolution in the space environment in low Earth orbit. In this Astrobiology special collection, results from two experiments of the EXPOSE-R2 campaign (2014-2016) are presented: Biofilm Organisms Surfing Space (BOSS) relating to biology and Photochemistry on the Space Station (PSS) dealing with astrochemistry.

The search for organic molecules at the surface of Mars is a top priority of the Mars Science Laboratory (NASA) and ExoMars 2020 (ESA) space missions. Their main goal is to search for past and/or present molecular compounds related to a potential prebiotic chemistry and/or a biological activity on the Red Planet. A key step to interpret their data is to characterize the preservation or the evolution of organic matter in the martian environmental conditions. Several laboratory experiments have been developed especially concerning the influence of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. However, the experimental UV sources do not perfectly reproduce the solar UV radiation reaching the surface of Mars. For this reason, the International Space Station (ISS) can be advantageously used to expose the same samples studied in the laboratory to UV radiation representative of martian conditions. Those laboratory simulations can be completed by experiments in low Earth orbit (LEO) outside the ISS. Our study was part of the Photochemistry on the Space Station experiment on board the EXPOSE-R2 facility that was kept outside the ISS from October 2014 to February 2016. Chrysene, adenine, and glycine, pure or deposited on an iron-rich amorphous mineral phase, were exposed to solar UV. The total duration of exposure to UV radiation is estimated to be in the 1250-1420 h range. Each sample was characterized prior to and after the flight by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. These measurements showed that all exposed samples were partially degraded. Their quantum efficiencies of photodecomposition were calculated in the 200-250 nm wavelength range. They range from 10 -4 to 10 -6 molecules·photon -1 for pure organic samples and from 10 -2 to 10 -5 molecules·photon -1 for organic samples shielded by the mineral phase. These results highlight that none of the tested organics are stable under LEO solar UV radiation conditions. The presence of an iron-rich mineral phase increases their degradation.

Antibody-based analytical instruments are under development to detect signatures of life on planetary bodies. Antibodies are molecular recognition reagents able to detect their target at sub-nanomolar concentrations, with high affinity and specificity. Studying antibody binding performances under space conditions is mandatory to convince space agencies of the adequacy of this promising tool for planetary exploration. To complement previous ground-based experiments on antibody resistance to simulated irradiation, we evaluate in this paper the effects of antibody exposure to real space conditions during the EXPOSE-R2 mission outside the International Space Station. The absorbed dose of ionizing radiation recorded during the 588 days of this mission (220 mGy) corresponded to the absorbed dose expected during a mission to Mars. Moreover, samples faced, at the same time as irradiation, thermal cycles, launch constraints, and long-term storage. A model biochip was used in this study with antibodies in freeze-dried form and under two formats: free or covalently grafted to a solid surface. We found that antibody-binding performances were not significantly affected by cosmic radiation, and more than 40% of the exposed antibody, independent of its format, was still functional during all this experiment. We conclude that antibody-based instruments are well suited for in situ analysis on planetary bodies.

This review presents our understanding of cometary dust at the end of 2017. For decades, insight about the dust ejected by nuclei of comets had stemmed from remote observations from Earth or Earth's orbit, and from flybys, including the samples of dust returned to Earth for laboratory studies by the Stardust return capsule. The long-duration Rosetta mission has recently provided a huge and unique amount of data, obtained using numerous instruments, including innovative dust instruments, over a wide range of distances from the Sun and from the nucleus. The diverse approaches available to study dust in comets, together with the related theoretical and experimental studies, provide evidence of the composition and physical properties of dust particles, e.g., the presence of a large fraction of carbon in macromolecules, and of aggregates on a wide range of scales. The results have opened vivid discussions on the variety of dust-release processes and on the diversity of dust properties in comets, as well as on the formation of cometary dust, and on its presence in the near-Earth interplanetary medium. These discussions stress the significance of future explorations as a way to decipher the formation and evolution of our Solar System.

The presence of solid carbonaceous matter in cometary dust was established by the detection of elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in particles from comet 1P/Halley. Such matter is generally thought to have originated in the interstellar medium, but it might have formed in the solar nebula-the cloud of gas and dust that was left over after the Sun formed. This solid carbonaceous material cannot be observed from Earth, so it has eluded unambiguous characterization. Many gaseous organic molecules, however, have been observed; they come mostly from the sublimation of ices at the surface or in the subsurface of cometary nuclei. These ices could have been formed from material inherited from the interstellar medium that suffered little processing in the solar nebula. Here we report the in situ detection of solid organic matter in the dust particles emitted by comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; the carbon in this organic material is bound in very large macromolecular compounds, analogous to the insoluble organic matter found in the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. The organic matter in meteorites might have formed in the interstellar medium and/or the solar nebula, but was almost certainly modified in the meteorites' parent bodies. We conclude that the observed cometary carbonaceous solid matter could have the same origin as the meteoritic insoluble organic matter, but suffered less modification before and/or after being incorporated into the comet.

The importance of comets for the origin of life on Earth has been advocated for many decades. Amino acids are key ingredients in chemistry, leading to life as we know it. Many primitive meteorites contain amino acids, and it is generally believed that these are formed by aqueous alterations. In the collector aerogel and foil samples of the Stardust mission after the flyby at comet Wild 2, the simplest form of amino acids, glycine, has been found together with precursor molecules methylamine and ethylamine. Because of contamination issues of the samples, a cometary origin was deduced from the (13)C isotopic signature. We report the presence of volatile glycine accompanied by methylamine and ethylamine in the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko measured by the ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) mass spectrometer, confirming the Stardust results. Together with the detection of phosphorus and a multitude of organic molecules, this result demonstrates that comets could have played a crucial role in the emergence of life on Earth.

We present a photostability study of two nucleobases, guanine and uracil. For the first time, the photoabsorption cross-section spectra of these molecules in the solid phase were measured in the VUV and mid-UV domain (115≤λ≤300 nm). They show a quite similar absorption level throughout this wavelength range, highlighting the importance of considering the whole VUV and UV domain during photolysis experiments in the laboratory. Their photolysis constant (J) can be estimated from those measurements as follows: 2.2×10(-2) s(-1)±11% for guanine and 5.3×10(-2) s(-1)±14% for uracil. This work shows that (i) measuring kinetic constants from a direct and "traditional" photolysis of a thin sample in the laboratory suffers strong limitations and (ii) achieving this measurement requires comprehensive modeling of the radiative transfer that occurs in any sample not optically thin (i.e.,≤2 nm). Moreover, this work has provided other data of interest: the refractive index of solid guanine and of uracil at 650 nm are 1.52 (±0.01) and 1.39 (±0.02), respectively, and the integrated IR band strengths (A) of solid guanine between 3700 and 2120 cm(-1) (3.4×10(-16) cm·molecule(-1)±13%) and of solid uracil between 3400 and 1890 cm(-1) (2.1×10(-16) cm·molecule(-1)±21%).

Comets are composed of dust and frozen gases. The ices are mixed with the refractory material either as an icy conglomerate, or as an aggregate of pre-solar grains (grains that existed prior to the formation of the Solar System), mantled by an ice layer. The presence of water-ice grains in periodic comets is now well established. Modelling of infrared spectra obtained about ten kilometres from the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 suggests that larger dust particles are being physically decoupled from fine-grained water-ice particles that may be aggregates, which supports the icy-conglomerate model. It is known that comets build up crusts of dust that are subsequently shed as they approach perihelion. Micrometre-sized interplanetary dust particles collected in the Earth's stratosphere and certain micrometeorites are assumed to be of cometary origin. Here we report that grains collected from the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko come from a dusty crust that quenches the material outflow activity at the comet surface. The larger grains (exceeding 50 micrometres across) are fluffy (with porosity over 50 per cent), and many shattered when collected on the target plate, suggesting that they are agglomerates of entities in the size range of interplanetary dust particles. Their surfaces are generally rich in sodium, which explains the high sodium abundance in cometary meteoroids. The particles collected to date therefore probably represent parent material of interplanetary dust particles. This argues against comet dust being composed of a silicate core mantled by organic refractory material and then by a mixture of water-dominated ices. At its previous recurrence (orbital period 6.5 years), the comet's dust production doubled when it was between 2.7 and 2.5 astronomical units from the Sun, indicating that this was when the nucleus shed its mantle. Once the mantle is shed, unprocessed material starts to supply the developing coma, radically changing its dust component, which then also contains icy grains, as detected during encounters with other comets closer to the Sun.

The PROCESS (PRebiotic Organic ChEmistry on the Space Station) experiment was part of the EXPOSE-E payload outside the European Columbus module of the International Space Station from February 2008 to August 2009. During this interval, organic samples were exposed to space conditions to simulate their evolution in various astrophysical environments. The samples used represent organic species related to the evolution of organic matter on the small bodies of the Solar System (carbonaceous asteroids and comets), the photolysis of methane in the atmosphere of Titan, and the search for organic matter at the surface of Mars. This paper describes the hardware developed for this experiment as well as the results for the glycine solid-phase samples and the gas-phase samples that were used with regard to the atmosphere of Titan. Lessons learned from this experiment are also presented for future low-Earth orbit astrochemistry investigations.

The search for organic molecules at the surface of Mars is a top priority of the next Mars exploration space missions: Mars Science Laboratory (NASA) and ExoMars (ESA). The detection of organic matter could provide information about the presence of a prebiotic chemistry or even biological activity on this planet. Therefore, a key step in interpretation of future data collected by these missions is to understand the preservation of organic matter in the martian environment. Several laboratory experiments have been devoted to quantifying and qualifying the evolution of organic molecules under simulated environmental conditions of Mars. However, these laboratory simulations are limited, and one major constraint is the reproduction of the UV spectrum that reaches the surface of Mars. As part of the PROCESS experiment of the European EXPOSE-E mission on board the International Space Station, a study was performed on the photodegradation of organics under filtered extraterrestrial solar electromagnetic radiation that mimics Mars-like surface UV radiation conditions. Glycine, serine, phthalic acid, phthalic acid in the presence of a mineral phase, and mellitic acid were exposed to these conditions for 1.5 years, and their evolution was determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy after their retrieval. The results were compared with data from laboratory experiments. A 1.5-year exposure to Mars-like surface UV radiation conditions in space resulted in complete degradation of the organic compounds. Half-lives between 50 and 150 h for martian surface conditions were calculated from both laboratory and low-Earth orbit experiments. The results highlight that none of those organics are stable under low-Earth orbit solar UV radiation conditions.

The detection and identification of organic molecules on Mars are of prime importance to establish the existence of a possible ancient prebiotic chemistry or even a biological activity. To date, however, no complex organic compounds have been detected on Mars. The harsh environmental conditions at the surface of Mars are commonly advocated to explain this nondetection, but few studies have been implemented to test this hypothesis. To investigate the nature, abundance, and stability of organic molecules that could survive under such environmental conditions, we exposed, in low Earth orbit, organic molecules of martian astrobiological relevance to solar UV radiation (>200 nm). The experiment, called UVolution, was flown on board the Biopan ESA module, which was situated outside a Russian Foton automated capsule and exposed to space conditions for 12 days in September 2007. The targeted organic molecules [alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB), mellitic acid, phthalic acid, and trimesic acid] were exposed with, and without, an analogous martian soil. Here, we present experimental results of the impact of solar UV radiation on the targeted molecules. Our results show that none of the organic molecules studied seemed to be radiotolerant to the solar UV radiation when directly exposed to it. Moreover, the presence of a mineral matrix seemed to increase the photodestruction rate. AIB, mellitic acid, phthalic acid, and trimesic acid should not be considered as primary targets for in situ molecular analyses during future surface missions if samples are only collected from the first centimeters of the top surface layer.

HCN polymers are complex organic solids resulting from the polymerization of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) molecules. They have been suspected to contribute to the refractory carbonaceous component of comets as well as the distributed CN sources in cometary atmospheres. Titan's tholins are also organic compounds produced in a laboratory setting but result from the complex chemistry between N2 and CH4 induced by UV radiation or electric discharges. Some of these compounds have optical properties in the visible range fairly similar to those of Titan's aerosols or those of the reddish surfaces of many icy satellites and small bodies. It has been proposed that HCN polymers are constituents of tholins but this statement has never received any clear demonstration. We report here on the comparative analysis of tholins and HCN polymers in order to definitely establish if the molecules identified in the HCN polymers are present in the tholins as well. First, we present a global comparison of HCN polymers with three kinds of tholins, using elemental analysis measurements, infrared spectroscopy and very high resolution mass spectrometry of their soluble fraction. We show that the chemical composition of the HCN polymers is definitely simpler than that of any of the tholins studied. Second, we focus on six ions representative of the composition of HCN polymers and using mass spectrometry (HRMS and MS/HRMS), we determine that these tholins contain at best a minor fraction of this kind of HCN polymers.