Novel Nucleic Acid-Based Soil Sample Analysis System for Planetary Exploration

Nucleic acid extraction as a method of life detection is of considerable importance in planetary exploration.Offthe-shelf kits however, are expensive and not compatible with the size/weight requirements of mobile robots.An automated, novel robotics system was developed capable of performing nucleic acid extractions (RNA, DNA) in under 30 minutes.A Python-based software architecture was used for data processing and visualization.Although the system was designed for a university robotics competition, it has numerous applications in industry.