Ha. Hypervelocity capture has a tendency to destroy a lot of what might be interesting. For instance, one of the biosignatures we’re hoping to find are distributions of chiral amino acids that are indicative of life. Ideally we would find mostly “left handed” or mostly “right handed” forms of the amino acids in a sample as opposed to a 50:50 distribution. This would be a very strong piece of evidence in favor of the ‘biochemistry’ hypothesis. My understanding is that an orbiter will be traveling so fast as it passes through the geysers that amino acids will be broken into their constituent atoms as they’re “captured”. We’ve looked at ways of capturing them using something like an aerogel surface but more research needs to be done.
Regarding the earlier question of planetary protection, I can elaborate a bit on this process as well as we work with them a lot. Ensuring something is sterile is non-trivial. The easiest way is to simply heat it to some temperature we know kills virtually all life on earth. Depending on the systems in your probe though, it’s unlikely you can simply cook it and have it still work. Some things can be irradiated. But there are edge cases like photodetectors that can’t handle either method. For these, you can often use methods such as a vapor hydrogen peroxide, but this is a surface treatment and is probably insufficient for longer term missions to subsurface oceans.
Ha. Hypervelocity capture has a tendency to destroy a lot of what might be interesting...
No doubt.
...an orbiter will be traveling so fast as it passes through the geysers that amino acids will be broken into their constituent atoms as they’re “captured”. We’ve looked at ways of capturing them using something like an aerogel surface but more research needs to be done.
Layman Speculation to follow:
So is the idea then to expect break down of the samples and to attempt to ‘capture’ the process of the amino acids breaking down with something like a simplified CERN particle accelerator style advanced sensor array combined with the aerogel capture? Or are you actually expecting to get the samples without them being annihilated? Either way sounds ridiculously difficult.
Maybe a suppressor of sorts, like the kind used to silence the launch of a munition or firing of a bullet could dampen some of the impact of sample capture. A series of aerogel coated baffles to help with micro-progressive deceleration or something.
Is it possible to drop a smaller decelerating capture device to capture the sample and then have it recaptured by the orbiter on a subsequent orbit, or is it a one pass deal using the gravity of the planetary body to slingshot the samples back to Earth?
Ensuring something is sterile is non-trivial.
Is the use of something like anti-mircrobial coatings not really possible? Considering the amount of atmosphere an orbiter might encounter, I can imagine any coatings might just burn off.
Depending on the systems in your probe though, it’s unlikely you can simply cook it and have it still work.
But the ‘burn it with fire’ approach is so attractive.
...but this [vapor hydrogen peroxide] is a surface treatment and is probably insufficient for longer term missions to subsurface oceans.
So is the concern then that between the surface treatment of the orbiter, and launch, there is still room for microbial contamination? This seems to argue for something like SpaceX’s orbital refueling concept, maybe with a vapor hydrogen peroxide treatment before final preparation for the long trip.
Not to Fanboy or anything, but concerning :
...the engineering challenges of that sound so cool to think about solving.
Ha. Hypervelocity capture has a tendency to destroy a lot of what might be interesting. For instance, one of the biosignatures we’re hoping to find are distributions of chiral amino acids that are indicative of life. Ideally we would find mostly “left handed” or mostly “right handed” forms of the amino acids in a sample as opposed to a 50:50 distribution. This would be a very strong piece of evidence in favor of the ‘biochemistry’ hypothesis. My understanding is that an orbiter will be traveling so fast as it passes through the geysers that amino acids will be broken into their constituent atoms as they’re “captured”. We’ve looked at ways of capturing them using something like an aerogel surface but more research needs to be done.
Regarding the earlier question of planetary protection, I can elaborate a bit on this process as well as we work with them a lot. Ensuring something is sterile is non-trivial. The easiest way is to simply heat it to some temperature we know kills virtually all life on earth. Depending on the systems in your probe though, it’s unlikely you can simply cook it and have it still work. Some things can be irradiated. But there are edge cases like photodetectors that can’t handle either method. For these, you can often use methods such as a vapor hydrogen peroxide, but this is a surface treatment and is probably insufficient for longer term missions to subsurface oceans.
No doubt.
Layman Speculation to follow:
So is the idea then to expect break down of the samples and to attempt to ‘capture’ the process of the amino acids breaking down with something like a simplified CERN particle accelerator style advanced sensor array combined with the aerogel capture? Or are you actually expecting to get the samples without them being annihilated? Either way sounds ridiculously difficult.
Maybe a suppressor of sorts, like the kind used to silence the launch of a munition or firing of a bullet could dampen some of the impact of sample capture. A series of aerogel coated baffles to help with micro-progressive deceleration or something.
Is it possible to drop a smaller decelerating capture device to capture the sample and then have it recaptured by the orbiter on a subsequent orbit, or is it a one pass deal using the gravity of the planetary body to slingshot the samples back to Earth?
Is the use of something like anti-mircrobial coatings not really possible? Considering the amount of atmosphere an orbiter might encounter, I can imagine any coatings might just burn off.
But the ‘burn it with fire’ approach is so attractive.
So is the concern then that between the surface treatment of the orbiter, and launch, there is still room for microbial contamination? This seems to argue for something like SpaceX’s orbital refueling concept, maybe with a vapor hydrogen peroxide treatment before final preparation for the long trip.