Chemical evolution of organic molecules under Mars-like UV radiation conditions simulated in the laboratory with the “Mars organic molecule irradiation and evolution” (MOMIE) setup

Earth as a Tool for Astrobiology—A European Perspective

“…Initially, these experiments were focused on the impact of UV radiation and oxidation processes. Table 1 highlights some key parameters of some laboratory simulations submitting pure or mixed organic molecules to simulated Martian UV sources (Hintze et al 2010;Johnson and Pratt 2010;Oro and Holzer 1979;Poch et al 2013Poch et al , 2014Poch et al , 2015Schuerger et al 2008;Stalport et al 2008Stalport et al , 2009Stalport et al , 2010Stoker and Bullock 1997;ten Kate et al 2005ten Kate et al , 2006. Among these parameters, the use of a Xenon arc lamp as the radiation source has proven to better reproduce the energy and relative abundance of the UV photons (190 to 400 nm) supposed to reach the surface of Mars (Schuerger et al 2003).…”

“…With some of these setups, the influence of a mineral matrix has also been investigated such as in clays (montmorillonite, saponite, nontronite) (Poch et al 2015;dos Santos et al 2016), in sulfates (gypsum, jarosite) (dos Santos et al 2016), in minerals containing ferrous Table 1 Laboratory simulations of the evolution of pure or mixed organic molecules under simulated Mars surface UV radiation. The data of the MOMIE experiment are described in Poch et al (2013Poch et al ( , 2014Poch et al ( and 2015 Reference Sample phase (Peeters et al 2009). Note that the source for JSC Mars-1 is the ash from the Pu'u Nene cinder cone on Hawaii.…”

“…6A; Poch et al 2013). It uses Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to monitor the sample, at a temperature (2-218 K) and pressure (1-6 mbar) representative of the mean conditions at the Martian surface.…”

Space as a Tool for Astrobiology: Review and Recommendations for Experimentations in Earth Orbit and Beyond

“…5 Earth's particle environment (dominated by galactic cosmic rays and solar particles) and the two main radiation (Van Allen) belts around the Earth and simulators can result in important differences between kinetics measurements related to photochemistry measured directly in space and similar experiments conducted in "classical" ground laboratories and then extrapolated to space conditions (Guan et al 2010). For specific conditions, such as the simulation of the surface of Mars, where photons below 190 nm have been filtered by the atmosphere (Cockell et al 2000), deuterium discharge or high pressure xenon UV lamps are able to reproduce quite faithfully the Sun emission continuum above 200 nm (Poch et al 2013;Ten Kate et al 2005). However, these simulations do not take into account simultaneous UV radiation, temperature variations, the solar wind, and cosmic rays.…”

“…The VUV spectra emitted by the lamps are extremely sensitive to the pressure and composition of the gas circulating within the lamps. The lower panel shows a comparison between a Martian laboratory simulator (high pressure Xe lamp-lamp 4) (Poch et al 2013) with a simulated UV spectrum reaching the surface of Mars for two extreme scenarios: (1) during northern summer low dust loading (τ = 0.1), at the equator and local noon (taken from Patel et al 2002); (2) during spring (vernal equinox) for a dusty day (τ = 2.0), at 60°N and local noon (taken from Cockell et al 2000). Representability of solar Martian simulator is quite satisfactory for UV radiations a dose similar to 7200 h of exposure to the Sun (i.e.…”