| The Miller-Urey Experiment in space (MU) investigates the formation of potential prebiotic organic compounds in the early solar system environment. The MU experiment will be sent to and retrieved from the International Space Station (ISS), where it will be performed inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG). Anticipated launch date of the MU experiment is end 2010. The goal of this space experiment is to understand prebiotic reactions in microgravity by simulating environments of the early solar nebula. Those environments will be simulated in six fabricated vials containing various gas mixtures as well as solid particles. Silicate particles will serve as surfaces on which thin water ice mantles can accrete. The particles will move repeatedly through a high-voltage spark discharge in microgravity, enabling chemical reactions analogous to the original Miller-Urey experiment. The experiment will be performed at low temperatures (below -5 °C), slowing hydrolysis and improving chances of detection of intermediates, initial products, and their distributions. Analysis will be performed post-flight using chemical analytical methods. One flight and one ground control experiment will be performed. The anticipated results will provide information about chemical reaction pathways to form organic compounds in the space environment, emphasizing abiotic chemical pathways and mechanisms that could have been crucial in the formation of biologically relevant compounds such as amino acids and nucleobases, basic constituents common to life as we know it on Earth. Furthermore, the MU experiment also tests particle motion, gas phase-solid state interactions, and the chemical results of electric discharge in microgravity. |
