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The technology provides miniaturized techniques for extracting trace amounts of organic molecules (lipids) from natural samples. It operates as an autonomous, miniaturized fluidic system, integrating lab techniques for lipid analysis while minimizing reagent volumes and concentrating organics for analysis, thereby increasing signal-to-noise ratios by orders of magnitude. The non-aqueous fluidic system described herein for astrobiological and life-detection missions (either in situ or returned sample) is configured to extract lipid organics from regolith using (1) a fluidic sample processor made of materials compatible with organic solvents and (2) a machine-learning system to select processing steps and parameters to maximize lipid yield. A critical gap is bridged by integrating technologies into a system that replicates analytical lab procedures autonomously on a spaceflight instrument scale with fidelity to original lab techniques. Automated fluidic devices combine controlled handling of liquids with sequential operations and parallelization of replicate processes. By designing such systems to closely interface with both sample-delivery and analytical measurement systems, laboratory analyses are automated. The technology adapts best practice laboratory methods for lipid analysis, overcoming analytical challenges like low organic abundance, interference of minerals/salts, and degradation of origin-diagnostic molecular structures. The extraction and concentration techniques from rock/soil samples can be applied to any biomarkers by changing the solvent, temperature, and agitation.

This invention enhances the performance of the ExCALiBR (Extractor for Chemical Analysis of Lipid Biomarkers in Regolith) life detection instrument by introducing an improved method for performing thin layer chromatography (TLC) on unknown chemical samples to separate component chemicals for spectrometric analysis. The key feature of this system is enabling lateral flow TLC on a horizontally oriented plate within a sealed environment, in contrast with a typically upright configuration with one end of a TLC plate inserted into a solvent. It uses controlled heating and cooling to manage solvent condensation and evaporation, generating a continuous solvent flow that improves analyte separation. In this system, heating the TLC plate causes the solvent to evaporate, which in turn drives additional capillary flow toward the region where evaporation occurs. When this evaporation front reaches the end of the plate, the system enables the solvent to continue migrating beyond the point where it would normally stop. As a result, the analyte can continue to separate even after the initial solvent front has reached the plate’s physical boundary. The design also allows re concentration of diffused analyte bands and reversal of solvent flow direction to re separate bands that may have merged.