Mineral Weathering Experiments for Terrestrial Planetary Analogs in a Continuous-Flow Reactor

Understanding the groundwater environment of ancient Mars is of great interest for evaluating its habitability. Herein, we experimentally tested simulated aqueous alterations of three Mars simulants using a continuous-flow packed bed reactor reacted with different ionic simulated groundwater solutions to explore the impact of the aqueous alteration on the mineral. These experiments were analyzed via mission relevant techniques. We demonstrated that the liquid and solid samples collected from the column outflow were impacted by the alteration. With MGS-1 Standard, we found that mineral dissolution occurred in all cases. In addition, when lithium was used in the groundwater material, lithium was adsorbed by the simulants. We then outline how this impacts results from ongoing Mars missions.