| Dr. Richard Quinn
Curriculum Vitae:  Is the surface of Mars really sterile, or could there be still-undiscovered traces of life littering this hostile landscape? Chemist Richard Quinn focuses on understanding the reactive processes that take place on the surface of the Red Planet, and how these might give a better idea of the potential for habitable environments. As the Viking landers found three decades ago, there is an abundance of complex, photochemically driven oxidative processes on Mars. These are comprised of atmosphere, dust, and soil interactions. Richard says that the key to understanding martian carbon chemistry is to unravel the dominant reaction mechanisms and kinetics of soil reactivity and organic compound decomposition. The important point is that such chemistry may have decomposed or modified organic material that could have survived from an earlier flowering of life on Mars. Richard is heavily involved in applying his chemical research to the design of instruments and schemes for new probes that will eventually sift the martian soil for signs of ancient inhabitants.
Projects
In Situ Instruments for Chemical Investigations of Mars NNA06CN46A
Five tasks are found within this project: development and refinement of the Mars Oxidant Instrument, which seeks to characterize, quantify, and identify Martian oxidants; developing a prototype for the TIC-TOC (Total Inorganic Carbon - Total Organic Carbon) instrument, which performs a wet chemical separation of inorganic and organic carbon; characterization measurements on a flight test model of the MECA Thermal-and-Electrical-Conductivity Probe; and test a hypothesis that deals with with presence of oxidants in the martian environment and the possibility of preserving organic material in the near-surface regolith - that shallow, high-latitude ground ice is a robust reservoir for organics, because oxidants cannot penetrate the ice; and reconfiguration of the Mars Oxidant Instrument for deployment in the Euproean Space Agency's ExoMars Rover mission.
In Situ Chemical Activation of Nanostructured Biosensor Arrays for Astrobiology Science
NNX09AB23G
We propose to develop a micromachined device to chemically activate nanostructured sensor arrays in situ on Mars and on other planetary surfaces. The array design is compatible with small payload missions and multiple analysis platforms (e.g. optical, electrochemical). The technical and scientific functionally of the device will be demonstrated using an Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Microelectrode Array Analyzer currently under development with NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II funding. The in situ NanoBioArray, will target high priority science objectives for astrobiology including: characterization of environments for astrobiological sample selection, in situ measurement of chemical and organic biomarkers, in situ characterization of biomarker preservation, and in situ detection of extant life. The development of a time-of-use technology for sensor activation during planetary exploration will enable the use of classes of sensors, which are currently shelf life limited, for astrobiological science investigations.
Astrobiological Investigations of Martian Perchlorate and Carbonate Containing Soils
NNX09AM93G
Several remarkable discoveries made by the Mars Phoenix Mission Science Team have recently been described in the press including, an alkaline soil pH as well as the presence of both perchlorates and carbonates. These results have shown that either the polar-region soils are quite unique, or else that the global soil unit on Mars has unexpected properties. In light of these ground-breaking new results, and their potentially major impact upon habitability and the design of future experiments to search for life forms on Mars, it is appropriate to assess the implications on astrobiology in a timely and thorough manner.
The primary objective of this work is to experimentally and theoretically model processes that perchlorate and carbonate chemistry may play in the alteration of organic biosignatures on Mars. On Mars, as on Earth, both reaction kinetics and thermodynamic energetics play roles in determining which chemical mechanisms dominate and correspondingly what final products are formed. The parameters that will be investigated in this work that dictate which mechanisms will dominate include: perchlorate and carbonate chemistry, the possible catalytic nature of natural components in the soil (especially Fe minerals, and certain other transition elements), water activity, temperature, the details of the soil-organic interface, the oxygen activity in the system, and the presence of other types of oxidizing species such as odd-oxygen and odd-hydrogen species. We will also reexamine the Viking chemistry results (GCMS and life detection experiments) in the context of these Phoenix discoveries to establish whether the Viking data sets are consistent with the presence of perchlorate (and related compounds) and carbonates at those two landing sites.
The need for investigation results from the desire to characterize the distribution, lifetime, and chemical state of organic content of soil and soil/ice surface materials on Mars. The likelihood of the successful detection of organic compounds on Mars and the successful interpretation of the significance of the chemical distribution of detected organic compounds will be greatly enhanced by an understanding of the rate and nature of any chemical weathering that may be altering compounds of interest. This project directly addresses the NASA Astrobiology Program goal to understand "Planetary Conditions for Life" and NASA Strategic Subgoal 3C "Advance scientific knowledge of the origin and history of the solar system, the potential for life elsewhere, and the hazards and resources present as humans explore space". This project will address these goals by constraining and extending the understanding of the organic chemical systems and processes that are relevant to the origin, preservation and distribution of organic biomarkers on Mars.
|