The Robotic Molecular Biologist -Automated Processing of Astrobiological Samples for Planetary Missions

The aim of this research is the development of a low-mass and robust life detection platform that has the potential to be integrated into future astrobiology space missions and to perform numerical analysis to optimize the platform. To achieve this, a subset of instruments that could be deployed on a Mars rover are examined and a novel stand-alone life detection platform is designed that is equipped with peristaltic pumps, solenoid valves, microfluidic chip, Microbial Activity MicroAssay (u-MAMA) and an Automated Nucleic Acid Extraction System (A-NECS). Further, a control algorithm is developed to perform an end-to-end analysis of DNA/RNA extraction and microbial activity detection on the environmental sample collected. A mathematical model for predicting the flow patterns in microfluidics is presented and a CFD analysis of the lysing chamber is conducted to understand turbulent properties, volume density distributions of the dissipated energy and the agitation rate effects.