Diseño e implementación de instrumentación científica basada en tecnología de vacío: Inyección de disoluciones liquidas en ultra alto vacío y cámara de simulación de atmósferas planetarias. MARTE

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Física Aplicada. Fecha de lectura: 30-06-201

Bacterial molecular machinery in the Martian cryosphere conditions

The exploration of Mars is one of the main objectives of space missions since the red planet is considered to be, or was in the past, potentially habitable. Although the surface of Mars is now dry and arid, abundant research suggests that water covered Mars billions of years ago. Recently, the existence of liquid water in subglacial lakes has been postulated below the South pole of Mars. Until now, experiments have been carried out on the survival of microorganisms in Martian surface conditions, but it remains unknown how their adaptation mechanisms would be in the Martian cryosphere. In this work, two bacterial species (Bacillus subtilis and Curtobacterium flacumfaciens) were subjected to a simulated Martian environment during 24 h using a planetary chamber. Afterward, the molecular machinery of both species was studied to investigate how they had been modified. Proteomes, the entire set of proteins expressed by each bacterium under Earth (named standard) conditions and Martian conditions, were compared using proteomic techniques. To establish this evaluation, both the expression levels of each protein, and the variation in their distribution within the different functional categories were considered. The results showed that these bacterial species followed a different strategy. The Bacillus subtilis resistance approach consisted of improving its stress response, membrane bioenergetics, degradation of biomolecules; and to a lesser extent, increasing its mobility and the formation of biofilms or resistance endospores. On the contrary, enduring strategy of Curtobacterium flacumfaciens comprised of strengthening the cell envelope, trying to protect cells from the extracellular environment. These results are especially important due to their implications for planetary protection, missions to Mars and sample return since contamination by microorganisms would invalidate the results of these investigations

Experimental Station for Generation, Processing and Diagnostics of Nanoparticles of Astrophysical Interest

Europhysics Sectional Conference on the Atomic and Molecular Physics of Ionized Gases. ESCAMPIG XXIV.Glasgow July 17-21 (2018). .--file:///C:/Users/BIBLIO~1/AppData/Local/Temp/CONGRESOS_Y_CONFERENCIAS752874-1.pd

On the nature of carbonaceous cosmic dust analogs

IBERTRIVA 2019 X Iberian Conference on Tribology – IBERTRIB, XI Iberian Vacuum Conference - RIVA, Seville, Spain,June 26-28Peer reviewe

Mimicking the Martian hydrological cycle: A set-up for introduce liquid water in vacuum

Liquid water is well known as the life ingredient as a solvent. However, so far, it has only been found in liquid state on this planetary surface. The aim of this experiment and technological development was to test if a moss sample is capable of surviving in Martian conditions. We built a system that simulates the environmental conditions of the red planet including its hydrological cycle. This laboratory facility enables us to control the water cycle in its three phases through temperature, relative humidity, hydration, and pressure with a system that injects water droplets into a vacuum chamber. We successfully simulated the daytime and nighttime of Mars by recreating water condensation and created a layer of superficial ice that protects the sample against external radiation and minimizes the loss of humidity due to evaporation to maintain a moss sample in survival conditions in this extreme environment. We performed the simulations with the design and development of different tools that recreate Martian weather in the MARTE simulation chamber.This research was funded by with the national plan of the Secretary of State for Research, Innovation and Development in the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. WLOM (Liquid Water On Mars) project code: FIS2016-77578-R (www.astrobiologia.es), as well as with the internal funding of the Centro de Astrobiología, CAB (INTA-CSIC) (National Institute of Aerospace Technology-Spanish National Research Council).Peer reviewe

Mimicking the Martian Hydrological Cycle: A Set-Up to Introduce Liquid Water in Vacuum

Liquid water is well known as the life ingredient as a solvent. However, so far, it has only been found in liquid state on this planetary surface. The aim of this experiment and technological development was to test if a moss sample is capable of surviving in Martian conditions. We built a system that simulates the environmental conditions of the red planet including its hydrological cycle. This laboratory facility enables us to control the water cycle in its three phases through temperature, relative humidity, hydration, and pressure with a system that injects water droplets into a vacuum chamber. We successfully simulated the daytime and nighttime of Mars by recreating water condensation and created a layer of superficial ice that protects the sample against external radiation and minimizes the loss of humidity due to evaporation to maintain a moss sample in survival conditions in this extreme environment. We performed the simulations with the design and development of different tools that recreate Martian weather in the MARTE simulation chamber

Mimicking Mars: A vacuum simulation chamber for testing environmental instrumentation for Mars exploration

We have built a Mars environmental simulation chamber, designed to test new electromechanical devices and instruments that could be used in space missions. We have developed this environmental system aiming at validating the meteorological station Rover Environment Monitoring Station of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission currently installed on Curiosity rover. The vacuum chamber has been built following a modular configuration and operates at pressures ranging from 1000 to 10-6 mbars, and it is possible to control the gas composition (the atmosphere) within this pressure range. The device (or sample) under study can be irradiated by an ultraviolet source and its temperature can be controlled in the range from 108 to 423 K. As an important improvement with respect to other simulation chambers, the atmospheric gas into the experimental chamber is cooled at the walls by the use of liquid-nitrogen heat exchangers. This chamber incorporates a dust generation mechanism designed to study Martian-dust deposition while modifying the conditions of temperature, and UV irradiated. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.MARTE Machine has been developed primarily with funds from the national plan of the Secretary of State for Research, Innovation and Development under the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, REMS Project Nos. 2007-65862 and AYA2011-25720, also with the internal planetary protection project of the Centro de Astrobiología, by Carlos Briones (2011) as well as the national project of MEC, SOLID (No. AYA2008-04013).Peer Reviewe

Mimicking Martian dust: An in-vacuum dust deposition system for testing the ultraviolet sensors on the Curiosity rover

We have designed and developed an in-vacuum dust deposition system specifically conceived to simulate and study the effect of accumulation of Martian dust on the electronic instruments of scientific planetary exploration missions. We have used this device to characterize the dust effect on the UV sensor of the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station in the Mars science Laboratory mission of NASA in similar conditions to those found on Mars surface. The UV sensor includes six photodiodes for measuring the radiation in all UV wavelengths (direct incidence and reflected); it is placed on the body of Curiosity rover and it is severely affected by the dust deposited on it. Our experimental setup can help to estimate the duration of reliable reading of this instrument during operation. We have used an analogous of the Martian dust in chemical composition (magnetic species), color, and density, which has been characterized by X-ray spectroscopy. To ensure a Brownian motion of the dust during its fall and a homogeneous coverage on the instrumentation, the operating conditions of the vacuum vessel, determined by partial pressures and temperature, have to be modified to account for the different gravities of Mars with respect to Earth. We propose that our designed device and operational protocol can be of interest to test optoelectronic instrumentation affected by the opacity of dust, as can be the degradation of UV photodiodes in planetary exploration.We acknowledge funding from Spanish agencies to the projects with references: Nos. ESP2007-65862, MAT2014-54231-C4-1-P, and AYA2011-25720

Survival of an Antarctic cyanobacterial mat under Martian conditions

Antarctica is one of the most outstanding analogs of Mars, and cyanobacterial mats are considered one of the most resilient biological consortia. The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of the Martian conditions on an Antarctic cyanobacterial mat. We exposed an Antarctic microbial mat to Martian conditions in a simulating chamber (MARTE) for 15 d and investigated the variations in the consortium by the use of 16S rRNA gene expression as an indicator of the biological activity. Metabarcoding using the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene was used to determine the succession of the active members of the microbial consortium during the experiment. The results showed that the microbial mat, far from collapsing, can survive the stringent conditions in the simulating chamber. Different behaviors were displayed depending on the metabolic capabilities and physiological characteristics of every taxon. The main conclusion is that the Martian conditions did not impair growth in some of the groups, and thus, the investigated Antarctic community would be able to survive in a Martian environment at least during the short experimental period, although elements of the community were affected in different ways.The authors gratefully acknowledge Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) MCIN/AEI/ http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 for funding grants: MICROAIRPOLAR-I (CTM2016-79741-R), MICROAIRPOLAR II (PID2020-116520RB-I00), WLOM (FIS2016-77578-R), and MPSL (PID2020-114047GB-I00).Peer reviewe

ALI: Deposition from solution for macromolecules

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la 10th Conferencia Fuerzas y Túnel, celebrada en Girona (España) del 5 al 7 de septiembre de 2016.The deposition of large molecules in ultra-high vacuum is often a challenge due to degradation or fragmentation during the evaporation process. An alternative deposition method for molecules of this kind is deposition from solution or colloidal suspension. This technique does not involve heating, thus eliminating the risk of degradation. In this talk we will present BihurCrystal's new deposition system, ALI-1000, and show examples of its use with macro- and biomolecules that cannot be deposited by conventional means, such as Adenosine-Triphosphate (ATP, shown below), a biomolecule known as the energy currency in cell metabolism). The combination of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) provides a complete picture of the result of the deposition and shows that the molecules arrive intact at the sample, and form ordered islands. Other examples that will be presented include the pigment ß-Carotene, and carbon nanotubes.Peer reviewe