Influence of Soil Parameters on Protein Presence for a Mars Rover Analogue’s On-Board Laboratory Setup

The purpose of our work is to examine the impact of parameters such as humidity, temperature or pH value of soil on the presence of organic substances in it - proteins. The reason for our research is the improvement of protein detection methods in the rover analogue laboratory. We decided to use temperature, humidity and pH sensors for the measurements. The tests were carried out on a permanent soil composition with variable, artificially induced combinations parameters. To identify the proteins, chose to use biuret reaction and microscopic observations. We predicted that high soil temperature would destroy protein, higher humidity should accelerate reactions, depending on the pH of the solution, they will behave as acids (in alkaline solution) or as bases (in acidic solution). Results of tests proved our initial assumption right.