Studies on Methods of Amino Acid Analysis in Cosmic Dusts Captured in Earth Orbit

Abstract

Space dusts are promising candidates for the delivery of extraterrestrial organics to the primitive Earth. It is necessary to capture them out of the terrestrial bisophere. We are planning to capture space dusts on the Exposed Facility of Japanese Experimental Module of International Space Station. We examine the possibility of detection of amino acids in captured space dusts by using ultra-low density silica gel (aerogel). Alpha-aminoisobutyric acid and isovaline, both are non-proteinous amino acids detected in Murchison meteorite, would be target molecules to detect.