HR: 0800h
AN: P21A-0221    [Abstracts]
TI: A Quantitative Analysis of Extraction of Organic Molecules from Terrestrial Sedimentary Deposits
AU: Kanik, I
EM: isik.kanik@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, Ca 91106 United States
AU: * Beegle, L W
EM: Luther.Beegle@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, Ca 91106 United States
AU: Abbey, W A
EM: William.A.Abbey@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, Ca 91106 United States
AU: Tsapin, A T
EM: Alexandre.tsapin@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, Ca 91106 United States
AB: There are several factors determining the ability to detect organic molecules as part of a robotic astrobiology mission to planets. These include the quantity of organics present in a sample, the efficiency of extracting those organics from the matrix that they reside in (i.e. sample processing) and finally the detection efficiencies of the analytical instrumentation aboard the robotic platform. Once the detection limits of the analytical instrumentation is established, the efficiency of extraction becomes the overriding factor in the detectability of these molecules, and needs to be factored in. We analyzed four different terrestrial field samples, which were initially created in aqueous environments, are sedimentary in nature. These particular samples were chosen because they possibly represent a terrestrial analog of Mars [1] and they represent a best case scenarios for finding organic molecules on the Martian surface. The extraction efficiencies of amino acids (smallest building blocks of life) from the samples using pyrolysis and solvent extraction techniques (with seven different solvents: water, hydrochloric acid, butane, ethanol, isoproponal, methanol, n=propanal) are reported. In order to remove any instrumental bias, we used a standard laboratory bench-top high pressure liquid chromatograph (HPLC). We determined both absolute quantity of organics as well as the D/L ratio to determine the preservation of that information in the processing step. Acknowledgment: The research described here was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and was sponsored by the NASA PIDDP and ASTID program offices. References: [1] Malin M.C. and Edgett K.S. (2003) Science 302 1931-1934.
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting