Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Glavin, D. P..
Looking for organic compounds that are essential for biochemistry or indicative of extraterrestrial organic influx is the primary goal of MOD (Mars Organic Detector). MOD can also quantify adsorbed and chemisorbed water and evolved carbon dioxide.
Chiral separations of fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled amino acids have been performed on a microfabricated capillary electrophoresis chip to explore the feasibility of using such devices to analyze for extinct or extant life signs in extraterrestrial environments. The test system consists of a folded electrophoresis channel (19.0 cm long x 150 microns wide x 20 microns deep) that was photolithographically fabricated in a 10-cm-diameter glass wafer sandwich, coupled to a laser-excited confocal fluorescence detection apparatus providing subattomole sensitivity. Using a sodium dodecyl sulfate/gamma-cyclodextrin pH 10.0 carbonate electrophoresis buffer and a separation voltage of 550 V/cm at 10 degrees C, baseline resolution was observed for Val, Ala, Glu, and Asp enantiomers and Gly in only 4 min. Enantiomeric ratios were determined for amino acids extracted from the Murchison meteorite, and these values closely matched values determined by HPLC. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using microfabricated lab-on-a-chip systems to analyze extraterrestrial samples for amino acids.
A suite of protein and nonprotein amino acids were detected with high-performance liquid chromatography in the water- and acid-soluble components of an interior fragment of the Martian meteorite Nakhla, which fell in Egypt in 1911. Aspartic and glutamic acids, glycine, alanine, beta-alanine, and gamma-amino-n-butyric acid (gamma-ABA) were the most abundant amino acids detected and were found primarily in the 6 M HCl-hydrolyzed, hot water extract. The concentrations ranged from 20 to 330 parts per billion of bulk meteorite. The amino acid distribution in Nakhla, including the D/L ratios (values range from <0.1 to 0.5), is similar to what is found in bacterially degraded organic matter. The amino acids in Nakhla appear to be derived from terrestrial organic matter that infiltrated the meteorite soon after its fall to Earth, although it is possible that some of the amino acids are endogenous to the meteorite. The rapid amino acid contamination of Martian meteorites after direct exposure to the terrestrial environment has important implications for Mars sample-return missions and the curation of the samples from the time of their delivery to Earth.
The Mars Organic Detector (MOD) is designed to assess whether organic compounds, possibly associated with life, are present in Martian rock and soil samples. MOD has a detection limit that is at least two orders of magnitude more sensitive than the Viking GCMS. MOD is focused on detecting amino acids, amines and PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Amino acids play an essential role in biochemistry on Earth and PAH are widespread throughout the universe and can provide an indication of the delivery of meteoritic organic material to Mars. The advantage of MOD is the absence of wet chemistry and its simple and robust design. The sample will be extracted from the mineral matrix (0.1 - 1 g of rock-powder) using sublimation and analyzed with a fluorescence detector. The isolation method is based on the fact that amino acids and PAH are volatile at temperatures greater than 150C. The fluorescence detection scheme is based on UV excitation with LED's, optical filters, PrN diode photon detector and a sample calibration reservoir. Fluorescamine is used as a fluorescing reagent for amino acids and amines, while PAH are naturally fluorescent. There is no sample preparation required and the turnaround time for a single analysis is on the order of minutes.
Antarctic micrometeorites (AMMs) in the 100-400 microns size range are the dominant mass fraction of extraterrestrial material accreted by the Earth today. A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) based technique exploited at the limits of sensitivity has been used to search for the extraterrestrial amino acids alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) and isovaline in AMMs. Five samples, each containing about 30 to 35 grains, were analyzed. All the samples possess a terrestrial amino acid component, indicated by the excess of the L-enantiomers of common protein amino acids. In only one sample (A91) was AIB found to be present at a level significantly above the background blanks. The concentration of AIB (approximately 280 ppm), and the AIB/isovaline ratio (> or = 10), in this sample are both much higher than in CM chondrites. The apparently large variation in the AIB concentrations of the samples suggests that AIB may be concentrated in rare subset of micrometeorites. Because the AIB/isovaline ratio in sample A91 is much larger than in CM chondrites, the synthesis of amino acids in the micrometeorite parent bodies might have involved a different process requiring an HCN-rich environment, such as that found in comets. If the present day characteristics of the meteorite and micrometeorite fluxes can be extrapolated back in time, then the flux of large carbonaceous micrometeorites could have contributed to the inventory of prebiotic molecules on the early Earth.
Trace amounts of glycine, serine, and alanine were detected in the carbonate component of the martian meteorite ALH84001 by high-performance liquid chromatography. The detected amino acids were not uniformly distributed in the carbonate component and ranged in concentration from 0.1 to 7 parts per million. Although the detected alanine consists primarily of the L enantiomer, low concentrations (<0.1 parts per million) of endogenous D-alanine may be present in the ALH84001 carbonates. The amino acids present in this sample of ALH84001 appear to be terrestrial in origin and similar to those in Allan Hills ice, although the possibility cannot be ruled out that minute amounts of some amino acids such as D-alanine are preserved in the meteorite.