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Abstract EANA2024-118


Microfluidic instruments to assess biotoxicity from Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) of planetary regoliths tested on high-fidelity simulants

Elias Chatzitheodoridis (1,2), Christos D. Georgiou (3), Electra Kalaitzopoulou (3), Hector-Andreas Stavrakakis (1), Ioannis Markopoulos (4), Malgorzata Holynska (2)
(1) National Technical University of Athens, Greece. (2) ESA/ESTEC, The Netherlands. (3) University of Patras, Greece, (4) ZEROONE LTD, Greece


The presence of oxidants in planetary soils has been established by space missions and experiments on Martian and Lunar soil analogues (1). Upon water-wetting the soils which contain oxidants such as metal superoxides and peroxides, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated, such as hydroxyl radicals (•OH), superoxide radicals (O2•−) and peroxides (O22−). These also result when soils contain oxidant perchlorates, generating both the reactive chlorine species (RCS) hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide and ROS. From ROS, •OH is the most  biotoxic, and if unchecked (and neutralised) the implications are huge for space missions aiming to colonise Mars and the Moon, and for missions searching for extraterrestrial life on Mars, in situ and in Mars sample return. We describe here small instruments that can detect and quantify ROS. Quantification is set with activated dust simulants that we produce in the lab with patent-pending methods. The same instruments, in their larger format aboard avehicle, can be used for ISRU purposes of oxygen on the Moon and Mars. The results of this study come from  the ESA project entitles “From Reactive Oxygen Detection to Oxygen Farming”, ESA-IDEA (I-2021-02874), project no. 2-1806/21/NL/GLC/ov, contract no. 4000136482/21/NL/GLC/ov) (2,3).

(1) Georgiou C. D., Zisimopoulos D., Kalaitzopoulou E., and Quinn R. C. (2017) Radiation driven formation of reactive oxygen species in oxychlorine containing Mars surface analogues. Astrobiology, 17: 319-336.

(2) C.D. Georgiou, E. Chatzitheodoridis, E. Kalaitzopoulou, P. Papadea, M. Skipitari, A. Varemmenou, A. Thoma, H.-A. Stavrakakis, A. Kapagiannidis, I. Markopoulos, D. Platanou, A. Alexandrou, M. Holynska, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) detection in planetary regoliths, soils and ices with the OxR device, 9th European Conference for Aeronautics and Space Sciences (EUCASS), Lille, France, 2022.

(3) Chatzitheodoridis E., C. D. Georgiou, M. Ferus, E. Kalaitzopoulou, H.-A. Stavrakakis, I. Markopoulos, M. Holynska (2024 in print) Sensing technologies for the challenging Lunar environment. Advances in Space Research.