PMID- 18558810
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20090123
LR  - 20080805
IS  - 1557-8070 (Electronic)
IS  - 1557-8070 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 3
DP  - 2008 Jun
TI  - Mitigation of the impact of terrestrial contamination on organic measurements 
      from the Mars Science Laboratory.
PG  - 571-82
LID - 10.1089/ast.2007.0160 [doi]
AB  - The objective of the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), which is planned to 
      follow the Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix lander to the surface of Mars, 
      is to explore and assess quantitatively a site on Mars as a potential habitat for 
      present or past life. Specific goals include an assessment of the past or present 
      biological potential of the target environment and a characterization of its 
      geology and geochemistry. Included in the 10 investigations of the MSL rover is 
      the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite, which is designed to obtain 
      trace organic measurements, measure water and other volatiles, and measure 
      several light isotopes with experiment sequences designed for both atmospheric 
      and solid-phase samples. SAM integrates a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer, 
      and a tunable laser spectrometer supported by sample manipulation tools both 
      within and external to the suite. The sub-part-per-billion sensitivity of the 
      suite for trace species, particularly organic molecules, along with a mobile 
      platform that will contain many kilograms of organic materials, presents a 
      considerable challenge due to the potential for terrestrial contamination to mask 
      the signal of martian organics. We describe the effort presently underway to 
      understand and mitigate, wherever possible within the resource constraints of the 
      mission, terrestrial contamination in MSL and SAM measurements.
FAU - ten Kate, Inge L
AU  - ten Kate IL
AD  - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Atmospheric Experiments Laboratory, Greenbelt, 
      Maryland 20771, USA. inge.l.tenkate@nasa.gov
FAU - Canham, John S
AU  - Canham JS
FAU - Conrad, Pamela G
AU  - Conrad PG
FAU - Errigo, Therese
AU  - Errigo T
FAU - Katz, Ira
AU  - Katz I
FAU - Mahaffy, Paul R
AU  - Mahaffy PR
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - Astrobiology
JT  - Astrobiology
JID - 101088083
RN  - 0 (Organic Chemicals)
RN  - 0 (Polymers)
SB  - IM
MH  - Atmosphere
MH  - *Containment of Biohazards
MH  - Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
MH  - Geologic Sediments/analysis
MH  - *Laboratories
MH  - *Mars
MH  - Organic Chemicals/*analysis
MH  - Polymers/chemistry
MH  - Volatilization
EDAT- 2008/06/19 09:00
MHDA- 2009/01/24 09:00
CRDT- 2008/06/19 09:00
PHST- 2008/06/19 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/01/24 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2008/06/19 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1089/ast.2007.0160 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Astrobiology. 2008 Jun;8(3):571-82. doi: 10.1089/ast.2007.0160.