NASA's rovers discovered previously unknown organic molecules on Mars

Through a new airborne experiment, NASA's Curiosity rover found traces of previously undiscovered organic molecules on Mars.

Although none of the organic molecules found in the sand have clear signs of life, they do show that this new technology, which does not require rover drilling, is an effective tool for finding evidence of carbon-based molecules, which are important building blocks of life as we know them.

In late 2016, Curiosity encountered a symbolic bump in the road while searching for signs of life on the Red Planet, followed by this wet lab experiment.

Just as the rover was preparing to sample Martian rocks at the bottom of Mount Sharp, its drill suddenly stopped working. Instead of suspending the mission until the problem was solved, the NASA researchers simply changed direction.

Curiosity's Wet Chemistry Lab did not grind rock samples into powder, but introduced a little loose sand that had been dug up on Augent Beach into Curiosity's Wet Chemistry Lab. The onboard lab has only nine cups of solvent, each of which can only be used once, so the researchers have to be very critical of the samples they ultimately choose.

Organic compounds in Martian rocks are extremely challenging because once they are heated, they break down into simpler molecules.

However, if these organic compounds react with other chemicals first, they are more likely to enter gas chromatographs and mass spectrometers for analysis without breaking down. Therefore, Curiosity is set up with nine cups of solvent.

It's a cleverly designed system that allows us to quickly analyze the soil on Mars in comfort on Earth. At the end of 2016, however, it was never tested.

NASA's team didn't expect Ogoncert's sand to be rich in organic matter, but they weren't sure if they could continue drilling on the planet, so it was worth a try. After unveiling the first seal of the Ogonsett Desert, researchers discovered several organic compounds, including ammonia and benzoic acid. Among them, some organic compounds have never been found on Mars before.

Now, a few years later, the findings have been peer-reviewed and published.

As mentioned above, the presence of these organic molecules does not necessarily mean that there was ever life on Mars, and no amino acid derivatives were detected in the samples.

But excitingly, the new technology can now be used to look for signs of life, even without the ability to drill holes.

The research team led by astrobiologist Maëva Millan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Georgetown University said: "Derivatization experiments on Mars have expanded the inventory of molecules in Martian samples and demonstrated a powerful tool that further makes it possible to search for polar organic molecules associated with organisms or pre-life. ”

In the end, it took more than a year for engineers on Earth to repair Curiosity's drill bit and put it back into service, but by then, we knew the wet chemistry cup was ready to work. By 2019, a second cup is ready for clay-bearing rock samples higher on Sharp Hill. Other analyses will soon follow, not only on Mars, but also on Earth.

NASA plans to carry out a mission in the 2930s to collect the remaining samples of Curiosity for a more careful analysis of them on our own planet. The study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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