Plume Ice Capture of Organics : Sample collection for in situ biosignature analyses. (PICO)

The Plume Ice Capture of Organics (PICO) system integrates the collection of small ice particles with recovery and distribution of aqueous samples for in situ analyses. We propose to mature PICO engineering and performance in increasingly flight-like environments, focusing on potential Enceladus plume encounter scenarios. The proposed PICO development is relevant to the stated MatISSE priorities for instrumentation enabling in situ search for life/Astrobiology, with emphasis on sample manipulation and contamination control. The core concept of PICO is to capture ice particles on a soft metal capture surface and recover accumulated residues for transport of an aqueous sample to one or more instruments for subsequent characterization of intact molecular species. The design is optimized to recover the highest concentration of organics in the transferred fluid by keeping the sample solution volume very small, thus maximizing sample sensitivity (i.e. measured concentration) for trace organic analysis. Accumulation of ice samples opens potential for in situ solution-based analytical chemistry techniques, with 100-fold higher sensitivity compared with time-of-flight spectrometry. Applications of PICO include enabling measurement of chirality of amino acids present at very low concentrations in plume ice. The PICO capture surface is designed to be optimizable for a specific mission plan. Capture efficiency of organics in ice depends on impacting particle size and velocity: efficient capture of an organic tracer has been demonstrated for ice impacts ranging 0.2 to 2 km/s. The amount of sample available for in situ analysis depends on the combined effects of (1) capture area and efficiency, (2) the recovered efficiency and volume of the solubilized accumulated residue, (3) fluid transport and (4) sample preparation for an intended instrument technique. PICO may be paired with one or more instruments capable of analyzing few-microliters sized processed sample. It was originally designed as the front-end for the high-sensitivity, high-resolution capillary electrophoresis laser-induced-fluorescence (CE-LIF) "Enceladus Organic Analyzer". PICO can be optimized to integrate with other instruments which accept input of a small aqueous sample. PICO has an estimated 3 kg mass and low power requirement (driven mainly by thermal requirements), is capable of undergoing rigorous contamination control cleaning procedures, and is suitable for infusion into planetary mission astrobiology concepts. For the proposed development, the primary target is Enceladus, which is included in the draft New Frontiers 5 announcement and is a high-priority astrobiology target listed in A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032. PICO could be deployed on an orbiter (transecting a plume) or on the surface (collecting snow). The PICO system development has achieved exit criteria for technology readiness level (TRL) 4. Work to date has included successful ice particle capture feasibility and material trade studies, brassboard demonstration of efficient fluidic performance, hardware engineering development and cryogenic vacuum environmental testing of the PICO engineering model. We propose to mature PICO to raise TRL from 4 to 6 by coordinating development of subsystems optimized for ice particle capture and fluidic sample handling and transport. Planned work includes implementing engineering improvements indicated by recent TVac tests, and testing PICO system performance in a suitable cryogenic vacuum environment. Our objective is to prepare PICO for selection for the next mission to Enceladus by utilizing analog plume environment tests in facilities currently in development.

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