Astrobiologists Put Mars Rover Life-Detecting Equipment to the Test
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Scientists have used the same methods that will soon be used to search for evidence of life on Mars to look for evidence of the earliest forms of life on Earth at a location in South Australia.
[...] Ms Teece, along with scientists from Macquarie University and University of Missouri, replicated the methods that the Perseverance Rover will use to select Martian rocks for analysis for biomarkers-naturally occurring molecules indicating evidence for microbial life. The team examined samples collected from the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.
"The Flinders Ranges is a perfect site to do a lot of Mars-related research in, because it's a dry, dusty, and windy area that is very barren and so a really good analogue for looking for life on Mars," Ms Teece says. "We wanted to use the same techniques that are on the Rover to pinpoint the best areas for looking for life and show that these techniques work together well."
[...] By mimicking the technology available on Perseverance, Ms Teece says the team was able to pinpoint which samples had undergone the most degradation and which would be less likely to still preserve these organics. The team used analogous tools to identify the rocks in the Flinders terrain that may be good for analysis, which they then collected by hand.
[...] "When sediments are buried and lithified to become rocks, they are heated up because the interior of Earth is hot-for approximately every kilometer under the surface that we descend, the temperature heats up by 25oC. This heat also destroys organic compounds, so knowing the maximum temperature of the rock is essential when canvassing for organics."
[...] "What is interesting is that we did find signs of ancient microbial life from the Cambrian period-which is when animals first evolved on earth. We found biomarkers, we found organic compounds and we found physical fossils and minerals that are associated with biology on Earth," she says.
[...] NASA has designated a window to launch the Perseverance Rover from July 17 to August 5, 2020.
Journal Reference:
Bronwyn L. Teecem, et al. Mars Rover Techniques and Lower/Middle Cambrian Microbialites from South Australia: Construction, Biofacies, and Biogeochemistry, Astrobiology (DOI: 10.1089/ast.2019.2110)
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