Mars Missions and Science

The European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin rover will search for signs of life on Mars, using a NASA-built instrument called MOMA. Complete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Music provided by Killer Tracks: "Fast Motion" by Stephen Daniel Lemaire, "Game Show Spheres 5-6" by Anselm Kreuzer, "Floating" by Ben Niblett & Jon Cotton || One of the biggest questions in planetary science is whether life ever arose on Mars, and NASA and the European Space Agency are sending a cutting-edge instrument to the red planet to find out. The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer, or MOMA, is a sophisticated suite of technologies that squeezes a lab full of chemistry equipment into a package the size of a toaster. MOMA will travel to Mars aboard ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover (formerly ExoMars), where it will search for evidence of past or present life.MOMA will not only search for organic molecules, which make up all life on Earth, it will also analyze their structure using its linear ion trap – the first use of this technology on Mars. Doing so will help scientists to determine whether the molecules could be of biological origin, a significant leap forward in the search for life beyond Earth.MOMA's mass spectrometer subsystem and main electronics were built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The pulsed UV laser and high-temperature ovens were developed in Germany, and the gas chromatograph in France. The Rosalind Franklin rover is a component of ExoMars, the primary Mars exploration program of the European Space Agency. Learn more at nasa.gov or download animations of MOMA. ||

MOMA uses ultraviolet laser pulses to release and ionize organic compounds captured within crushed Martian surface and near-surface materials. Because each laser pulse lasts less than two billionths of a second, this process effectively ionizes more heat-resistant materials than those accessed by traditional oven-heating (pyrolysis) methods. Pulsed laser processing preserves weak molecular bonds, and enables the identification of organic compounds even in the presence of highly reactive perchlorates commonly found in Martian surface materials. ||

The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer, or MOMA, is a miniaturized, highly sophisticated organic chemistry laboratory headed to the red planet aboard ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover (formerly ExoMars). The MOMA mass spectrometer subsystem and main electronics were built and tested at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This editor's resource page contains video footage and images of MOMA in broadcast resolution. || Highlight reel of the MOMA instrument during testing:00:00 - close up of the mass spectrometer subsystem00:06 - cleaning MOMA inside the Mars thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC)00:56 - preparation for electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing ||