UPS Professor Bence Matyas, along with environmental engineering and electrical engineering students in Quito's branch campus carried out a research project for the detection of organic compounds in soil from extreme environmental conditions by using a software program known as "SciencePayload".

Approximately 1000g of soil samples were taken from three 0-20 cm deep sampling sites, with extreme environmental conditions, one of them, was the sample of soil collected from Tena, Ecuador (Amazon region) considered as control due to its high content of organic matter.

The project was presented at the conference organized by CECASIS, with the participation of students from different programs. Professor Bence explained that "currently there is no available software tool that examines and compares the suitability of the analytical instruments taking into account the robotic explorer's capacity and the purpose of the research in the planning phase of a mission, therefore, we developed a software tool called SciencePayload, which can provide a good basis for evaluating the feasibility of selecting analytical instruments for the detection of organic compounds." The software and user manual are available for free at sciencepayload.com

This instrument makes it possible to compare the resource requirements of different analytical methods, the total possible number of measurements, the storage time of the required chemicals and the possible releasable weight, if applicable, for the benefit of the scientific payload, and then it shows the instrument according to the travel time, the capacity of the robotic explorer and the research purpose that supports the decision making in the selection of new analytical instruments for future exploratory missions of the National Administration of Aeronautics and Space (NASA)