In Situ Analytical Chemistry Laboratory for the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor

In this paper, we report a fully automated, end-to-end (sample-in/data-out) capillary electrophoresis system. The system’s dimensions conform to the cylindrical shape and power/data requirements of the science payload compartment of the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS), a snake-like robot capable of autonomously navigating challenging terrain on Earth or other worlds. The capillary electrophoresis system is equipped with three contactless conductivity detectors: two dedicated to analyte detection and one for characterizing bulk sample flow. The system enables simultaneous detection of cations and anions, including K+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl–, and SO42–, at submicromolar concentrations. For the first time, we deployed and demonstrated autonomous capillary electrophoresis operation on a glacier with the system tested in three environments: on-ice, partially submerged in an active stream, and fully submerged in a glacial pond.

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Publication Details

Journal
ACS Measurement Science Au
Published
2026-03-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmeasuresciau.5c00173
Primary Topic
Chemical Safety and Risk Management
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

In Situ Analytical Chemistry Laboratory for the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor

Richard Rieber, Michael Prior-Jones, Maria Mora, Peter A. Willis et al.
ACS Measurement Science Au
Chemical Safety and Risk Management
article

In Situ Analytical Chemistry Laboratory for the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor

Richard Rieber, Michael Prior-Jones, Maria Mora, Peter A. Willis, Christian Stenner, Elizabeth Bagshaw, Tomas Drevinskas, Matthew L. Robinson, Masahiro Ono, Morgan Leigh Cable, Aaron C. Noell, Sarah Cruz, Rachel Etheredge, Michael J. Malaska, Mauro S. Ferreira Santos, Michael Paton, Alex S. Gardner
article en

Abstract

In this paper, we report a fully automated, end-to-end (sample-in/data-out) capillary electrophoresis system. The system’s dimensions conform to the cylindrical shape and power/data requirements of the science payload compartment of the Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS), a snake-like robot capable of autonomously navigating challenging terrain on Earth or other worlds. The capillary electrophoresis system is equipped with three contactless conductivity detectors: two dedicated to analyte detection and one for characterizing bulk sample flow. The system enables simultaneous detection of cations and anions, including K+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl–, and SO42–, at submicromolar concentrations. For the first time, we deployed and demonstrated autonomous capillary electrophoresis operation on a glacier with the system tested in three environments: on-ice, partially submerged in an active stream, and fully submerged in a glacial pond.

ACS Measurement Science Au
Planetary Science Institute (US), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US), Royal Canadian Geographical Society (CA), University of Bristol (GB), Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (US), Cardiff University (GB)
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Openalex Percentile: Top 25%
Chemical Safety and Risk Management
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