Portfolio

ELIE: Electronic Life-detection Instrument for Enceladus/Europa

23 August 2022 / Comments
Project Sponsor
NASA PICASSO program and MIT Space Exploration Initiative
Start Date
Project Status
Low-technology readiness instrument under development
Faculty Investigator
Dr. Christopher E. Carr
We are working to develop the ELIE instrument, capable of detecting prebiotic, ancient, or extant life, and distinguishing forward contamination, through detection of two universal biomarkers: the amino acid abundance distribution and IPs. We will validate single molecule nanogap detection and develop a breadboard system to advance ELIE from technology readiness level (TRL) 2 to TRL 4.
Science objective description

For more information see an overview with some updates about parabolic flights conducted as part of a collaboration with the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative.

Publications:

Carr CE, Duzdevich D, Szostak JW, Lee S, Taniguchi M, Ohshiro T, Komoto Y, Ruvkun G, Soderblom JM, and Zuber MT (2020), Electronic Life-detection Instrument for Enceladus/Europa (ELIE), Abstract 678692 (P044-0002), AGU Fall Meeting, 1-17 Dec. 2020. Earth and Space Science Open Archive (ESSOAr) doi:10.1002/essoar.10506997.1. Earlier version submitted as: Carr CE, Duzdevich D, Szostak JW, Lee S, Taniguchi M, Ohshiro T, Komoto Y, Ruvkun G, Soderblom JM, and Zuber MT. Electronic Life-detection Instrument for Enceladus/Europa (ELIE). 2020 In Situ Science and Instrumentation Workshop for the Exploration of Europa and Ocean Worlds, JPL, Pasadena, CA, April 28-30, 2020 (abstract; held online as 2021 Virtual In Situ Science and Instrumentation Workshop for the Exploration of Europa and Ocean Worlds, May 20, 2021). Video: https://youtu.be/lMfXHJkVyXk?t=3442

Lee, S. Single molecule detection and classification using nanogaps. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science [SM Thesis], 2021. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/130699