A Mission Simulating the Search for Life on Mars with Automated Drilling, Sample Handling, and Life Detection Instruments Performed in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert, Chile.

ABSTRACT: We report on a field demonstration of a rover-based drilling mission to search for biomolecular evidence of life in the arid core of the Atacama Desert, Chile. The KREX2 rover carried the Honeybee Robotics 1 m depth The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploration of New Terrains (TRIDENT) drill and a robotic arm with scoop that delivered subsurface fines to three flight prototype instruments: (1) The Signs of Life Detector (SOLID), a protein and biomolecule analyzer based on fluorescence sandwich microarray immunoassay; (2) the Planetary In Situ Capillary Electrophoresis System (PISCES), an amino acid analyzer based on subcritical water extraction coupled to microchip electrophoresis analysis; and (3) a Wet Chemistry Laboratory cell to measure soluble ions using ion selective electrodes

SUBMITTER: Stoker CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10750310 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature