Low-Temperature Comparative Planetology: Pore-Scale Dynamics with Planetary Scale Implications

Science-I: Colin Meyer, Dartmouth College Motivation: Current models of planetary ices exclude important microscale processes that dictate the ice’s biogeochemical and material properties. For ice-dominated worlds in our solar system neglecting microscale physics breeds uncertainty in their geophysical evolution and habitability. With upcoming missions targeting these high-priority bodies, constraining their characteristics and dynamics is vital to mission planning and data interpretation. An abundance of ice-rich terrestrial analog environments and a New Hampshire Earth science community with an extensive knowledge of such cryogenic systems provides the ideal opportunity to advance our understanding and representation of planetary ices as we enter a new era of ice-ocean world exploration. Here we outline our project plan, which leverages community knowledge of ice microstructural processes, to improve our understanding of planetary ice biogeochemistry, the dynamics of three phase ice-brine-sediment systems, and the interaction between spacecraft materials and planetary ices. Methods: The project is centered around three interrelated topics. We will employ a multidisciplinary approach, combining the team’s expertise in numerical modelling, analog field work, and laboratory experimentation with targeted collaborations with NASA centers (JPL) and existing NASA projects (OAST, VERNE, EELS) to accomplish these objectives. Topic 1: Biogeochemistry of Planetary Ices: Constrain the biogeochemical dynamics that control the evolution and habitability of diverse terrestrial analog ice-brine systems and extend this knowledge to planetary ices. We will conduct biogeochemical assays of the ice-brine-sediment systems of British Columbia’s compositionally diverse hypersaline lakes and utilize these results to inform laboratory experiments of ice-brine system evolution and benchmark novel multiphase reactive transport models of planetary ices that include biogeochemical processes. Members of the team have conducted similar assays at these sites and in Arctic/Antarctic environments, others are experts in low-temperature laboratory experiments, and multiple team members have extensive experience in reactive transport modeling. Topic 2: Multiphase Ice/Brine/Sediment Systems: Leverage terrestrial ice-brine-sediment systems to better understand the habitability and dynamics of Martian ice-brine-sediment systems. Utilizing the team’s knowledge of terrestrial ice-brine-sediment systems and the assays of Topic T1 we will develop and benchmark numerical models of planetary ice-brine-sediment systems that accurately simulate their microstructural and geochemical evolution. Topic 3: Ice Interactions with Spacecraft Materials: Quantify mission relevant properties and dynamics of the interaction between spacecraft materials and diverse planetary ices. Leveraging the team's low-temperature materials science expertise, and the results of Topic T1, we will identify a trade space of ice-brine systems that may be encountered by upcoming planetary missions. We will fabricate endmembers of these potential ices and test their thermochemical interactions with an array of prospective spacecraft materials. Implications: Constraining the microscale processes that govern the material and transport properties of planetary ices has both astrobiological and geophysical implications. Coupled with investigations of the interactions between potential flight hardware and diverse planetary ices, our scientific program is directly relevant to the planning of future ice-ocean world missions, the Space Technologies Mission Directorate and has numerous applications to both the Earth and Planetary Science Divisions of the Science Mission Directorate. This proactive collaboration between the untapped terrestrial cryosphere community of New Hampshire and NASA promises to provide an ongoing partnership which expands the breadth and impact of both communities’ research.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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