"How long does it take to create intelligent life out of microbial life in the fastest possible way where the planets climate is stable?"
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Exploration of Mineral Associated Bio/organic Signatures: Meeting the Challenge in the Search for Signs of Life (2)
PI: Nancy Hinman
Robust, unequivocal evidence of biosignatures in extraterrestrial and ancient terrestrial materials would have a profound impact on current understanding of the origins of life. Therefore, it is imperative for NASA to target minerals that are most likely to preserve and yield evidence of associated biological or organic compounds in order to optimize return sample missions and design criteria for remotely operated instrumentation. Herein, laser desorption Fourier transform mass spectrometry (LD-FTMS) is proposed to detect various biological and organic compounds associated with different minerals. In a prior NASA project, results demonstrated that some organics compounds (polyaromatic hydrocarbons) self-ionize and are easily detected, but that most biological compounds require ionization assistance. Therefore, it is reasonable to explore how well different
minerals can assist in ionization, a process referred to as geomatrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (GALDI). The effectiveness of GALDI appears to depend not only on the composition of the biological molecule and mineral moiety, but also on how the two are associated. Hypothetically, different physicochemical processes of association (e.g., sorption, inclusion, or substitution) could affect the detectability of biological or organic compounds associated with minerals. Hypothetically, the association type is a consequence of mineral formation parameters (e.g., biotic vs. abiotic, aqueous precipitation vs. surface adsorption, authigenic vs. diagenetic). Consequently, the association type may determine which biological or organic compounds are detectable and which persist in the rock record. This approach using LD-FTMS in concert with other techniques to explore for biosignatures relies on comparing observations from synthetic and biologically induced minerals with observations of natural materials from various field sites. The field sites were chosen to encompass depositional environments relevant to different mineral formation mechanisms and to the Martian surface. At least one field site, Craters of the Moon National Monument, offers outreach opportunities through collaboration with the National Park Service.
