THE CAPABILITY OF DETECTING LOW-ABUNDANCE CHIRAL MOLECULES (E.G. AMINO ACID) IN FLIGHT MISSIONS WHICH HAS REMAINED CHALLENGING IS CRUCIAL FOR ACHIEVING A LONG-STANDING OBJECTIVE OF THE PLANETARY SCIENCE COMMUNITY IN DETERMINING WHETHER OTHER HABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS AND EVEN LIFE ITSELF CAN BE FOUND OUTSIDE OF EARTH. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO DESIGN AND DEMONSTRATE AN ULTRACOMPACT OPTO-ELECTRO-FLUIDIC SYSTEM THAT CAN EFFICIENTLY PRECONCENTRATE AND SEPARATE LOW-ABUNDANCE CHIRAL MOLECULES FOR IN SITU LIFE DETECTION. TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVE I PLAN TO ACCOMPLISH THREE SPECIFIC RESEARCH AIMS: (1) DEMONSTRATE AN ELECTRO-FLUIDIC PRECONCENTRATOR FOR LOW-ABUNDANCE MOLECULES (2) DEMONSTRATE AN OPTO-FLUIDIC SEPARATOR FOR ENANTIOSELECTIVE SEPARATION OF CHIRAL MOLECULES AND (3) INTEGRATE THE PRECONCENTRATOR AND SEPARATOR INTO A SINGLE ULTRACOMPACT SYSTEM AND TEST ITS PERFORMANCES. SPECIFICALLY I PROPOSE TO EXPLOIT THERMOPHORESIS AND ELECTROTHERMAL FLOW IN MICRO- OR MILLI-TUBES TO PRECONCENTRATE MOLECULES OF BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SORET COEFFICIENTS. THE ELECTRO-FLUIDIC PRECONCENTRATOR WILL ENABLE NON-INVASIVE LABEL-FREE AND HIGHEFFICIENT ENRICHMENT OF LOW-ABUNDANCE MOLECULES FROM LARGE QUANTITIES OF LIQUID SAMPLES. METAMATERIAL-ENHANCED CHIRAL GRADIENT FORCE WILL BE EXPLOITED TO ENABLE LABEL-FREE ENANTIOSELECTIVE SEPARATION OF CHIRAL MOLECULES IN MICROFLUIDIC CHANNELS. BASED ON THE THERMOPHORESIS OF MOLECULES AND OPTICAL GRADIENT FORCE BOTH THE PRECONCENTRATOR AND SEPARATOR CAN WORK UNDER THE VARIABLE GRAVITY FIELDS. BY INTEGRATING THE PRECONCENTRATOR AND SEPARATOR INTO A SINGLE PLATFORM I EXPECT TO DEVELOP AN OPTO-ELECTRO-FLUIDIC SYSTEM WITH ULTRACOMPACTNESS LIGHTWEIGHT AND EASY OPERATION. THE SYSTEM IS ALSO OPEN TO THE FURTHER INTEGRATION WITH OTHER COMPONENTS FOR SAMPLE ACQUISITION AND ANALYSIS. WITH ITS SUPERIOR PERFORMANCES THE PROPOSED SYSTEM WILL BECOME AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT FOR THE FUTURE END-TO-END IN SITU INSTRUMENT FOR NASA SPACE SCIENCE MISSIONS. IT WILL ALSO BENEFIT DRUG SCREENING DRUG PURIFICATION AND POINTOF- CARE BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS IN HUMAN SPACE EXPLORATION.