講演情報
[PPS07-P05]Evaluation of the Phobos simulant UTPS-TB: Insights from CHNS and organic analyses
*Bianka Petra Munday1、Queenie Hoi Shan Chan1、Yoko Kebukawa2、Diptimayee Behara1、James Brakely1 (1.RHUL、2.Inst. of Science Tokyo)
キーワード：
JAXA MMX mission、Martian moons、Phobos、Mars systems
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) Mission, projected launch 2026, aims to land on the Martian moon Phobos, collect regolith samples, and advance understanding of its surface environment. Miyamoto et al. (2021) created a Phobos simulant, University of Tokyo Phobos Simulant, Tagish Lake-based (UTPS-TB), to reconstruct Phobos’ surface mineralogy. This study characterizes the elemental and organic composition of UTPS-TB and evaluates its suitability as an organic analogue, given that nano-carbon and organic matter were included in its synthesis. Elemental (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur) analysis reveals mineralogical similarities between the simulant and Tagish Lake, Murchison and Tarda meteorites. Using mass loss experiments, we determined its relative molecular water, organic and hydroxide, phyllosilicate, and carbonate contents, revealing a dominant phyllosilicate component. While UTPS-TB is likely a reliable mineralogical simulant of Phobos for its comparability to carbonaceous chondrites, there is an absence of nitrogen and insoluble organic matter (IOM). An absence of amino acids, a commonly explored compound among various classes of soluble organic matter (SOM), is revealed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. This also indicates no terrestrial contamination of amino acids in the simulant. In order to achieve a simulant that is both as mineralogically and organically accurate to Phobos as possible, this study proposes the addition of selected organic matter (e.g. amino acids, carboxylic acids), which will enhance organic content as well as bulk carbon and nitrogen content to be more similar to Tagish Lake, and therefore Phobos.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Hideaki Miyamoto of the University of Tokyo for the UTPS-TB sample. We thank Sidonie Coker for assisting in amino acid preparation for GC-MS analysis. We thank Prof. Mark Sephton and Dr. Jonathan Watson for the use of the GC-MS facility at Imperial College Organic Geochemistry Laboratory. We thank Prof. Dr. Mehmet Yesiltas of Stony Brook University for providing data for meteorite mass loss comparison.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Hideaki Miyamoto of the University of Tokyo for the UTPS-TB sample. We thank Sidonie Coker for assisting in amino acid preparation for GC-MS analysis. We thank Prof. Mark Sephton and Dr. Jonathan Watson for the use of the GC-MS facility at Imperial College Organic Geochemistry Laboratory. We thank Prof. Dr. Mehmet Yesiltas of Stony Brook University for providing data for meteorite mass loss comparison.