The SAM project is a pilot study of a space instrument concept, the Aquatic Systems Habitability Analyser (ASHA), designed to investigate the habitability of the ocean worlds of our Solar System, such as Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa.
SAM will be a study concept of two systems proposed for future planetary missions to investigate the habitability of aquatic systems on Earth and other planets. The two systems are: (i) a long-term sub-liquid measurement for temperature, electrical conductivity, redox potential, ions, and dissolved gases to ascertain the temporal evolution of the salinity and microbial activity in aquatic systems; and (ii) an environment and atmospheric gas sensor suite to monitor the habitability of the environment above the liquid.
The measurements from these instruments will determine the pre-screening protocol for selecting the liquid samples that more traditional biochemistry, genetic, and molecular biology methods will further analyse with standard laboratory equipment.