UPS students conducted research in cooperation with NASA

Quito, viernes 14 septiembre 2018
(From left to right) Karina Pazmiño, UPS students and professor Bence Mátyás
(From left to right) Karina Pazmiño, UPS students and professor Bence Mátyás

UPS students majoring in environmental, electronics and automation engineering took part in research projects in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from the United States. They studied the physical and chemical conditions of several soil samples collected from extreme climate conditions which can be compared to extraterrestrial soil.

The research was carried out under the supervision of professor Bence Mátyás and presented in the article "Decision support algorithm for the selection of analytical methods in organic compounds detection for future extraterrestrial exploratory missions" which was published in Electrophoresis in the issue titled "Analytical methodologies for space exploration", designed by NASA editors. This journal is indexed in the data bases of Web of Science and Scopus.

The people involved in this research were Professor Bence Mátyás, students Vanessa Serrano, Juan Morales (environmental engineering); David Loja, Stalin Yaguana and Francisco Gómez (electronics and automation engineering), professor Lenin Ramírez and Gabriela Bautista, external expert.

"Currently, there is no software available that can examine and compare the suitability of analytical tools by taking into account the capacity of the robotic explorer and the purpose of the research in the planning stage. Therefore, the researchers developed a software titled SciencePlayload that provides a good basis to assess the feasibility of selecting analytical tools for the detection of organic compounds", said Mátyás.

The researchers would like to thank the cooperation of Karina Pazmiño, director of the environmental engineering program; Ramon Perez, director of electronic and automation engineering; and Máté Szarka, NASA engineer.

Astrobiology focuses on the study of life in the universe. The National Administration of Aeronautics and Space, known as NASA, provides a biological perspective to several areas of research related to the search for habitable planets, exploration missions to Mars and Europa, satellite of Jupiter, and tires to understand the origin of life and planning for the future of life beyond Earth.