Astrobiologist Eigenbrode profiled in Goddard Tech Trends

July 9, 2008 / Written by: Linda Billings

Astrobiologist Jennifer Eigenbrode is profiled in the latest issue of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Goddard Tech Trends (Vol. 4, #4, summer 2008), published by the Office of the Chief Technologist.

Eigenbrode is a biogeochemist and an expert at detecting organic compounds in rocks. She is a member of the Goddard team that is building the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.

SAM’s instruments will analyze martian soil and rock samples with the aim of detecting organic compounds. “SAM should detect organic carbon if it is present, regardless of its chemistry,” Eigenbrode told Tech Trends. “If SAM discovers an environment rich in organics, we will have compelling scientific reasons to develop more sophisticated tools that can determine if these are life or non-life processes.”

Looking ahead, Eigenbrode is already tackling the challenge of developing a multi-step chemical-processing method that would combine some of the techniques used in terrestrial laboratories to process organic compounds. This work is supported by Internal Research and Development funding from Goddard. “No single technology identifies all molecular components because they have different chemistries. If organics are present on Mars and elsewhere, they likely include complex compounds,” she told Tech Trends.

Goddard Chief Technologist Peter Hughes says Eigenbrode an innovator who is “truly helping NASA to achieve its missions and goals…. I’m especially proud that our R&D program is supporting her important work.”