Biology
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p13b1398c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P13B-1398
Biology
[0406] Biogeosciences / Astrobiology And Extraterrestrial Materials, [0456] Biogeosciences / Life In Extreme Environments, [5200] Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology, [5400] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets
Scientific paper
Introduction: Field sites on Earth are routinely used to simulate planetary environments so that we can try to understand the evidence of processes such as sedimentary deposition, weathering, evolution of habitable environments, and behavior of spacecraft and instrumentation prior to selection of mission architectures, payload investigations and landing sites for in situ exploration of other planets. The rapid evolution of astrobiology science drivers for space exploration as well as increasing capability to explore planetary surfaces in situ has led to a proliferation of declarations that various Earth environments are analogs for less accessible planetary environments. We have not yet progressed to standardized measures of analog fidelity, and the analog value of field sites can be variable de-pending upon a variety of factors. Here we present a method of evaluating the fidelity and hence utility of analog environments by using an ontological approach to evaluating how well the analogs work. The use of ontologies as specification constructs is now quite common in artificial intelligence, systems engineering, business development and various informatics systems. We borrow from these developments just as they derive from the original use of ontology in philosophy, where it was meant as a systematic approach to describing the fundamental elements that define “being,” or existence [1]. An ontology is a framework for the specification of a concept or domain of interest. The knowledge regarding that domain, eg., inventory of objects, hierarchical classes, relationships and functions is what describes and defines the domain as a declarative formalism [2]. In the case of planetary environments, one can define a list of fundamen-tal attributes without which the domain (environment) in question must be defined (classified) otherwise. In particu-lar this is problematic when looking at ancient environments because of their alteration over time. In other words, their fundamental attributes may no longer exist and have to be reconstructed. In the case of Earth analogs for Mars, there are important distinctions that cannot be duplicated in contemporary Earth environments—we cannot produce the same surface conditions with respect to thermal fluctuation, ionizing radiation and extremely oxidizing chemistry. Mars analogs on Earth: We have studied the habitability of several desert environments on Earth by measuring their chemical, physical and biological features. These locations, which include Battleship Promontory in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica; several sites in Svalbard, the arctic; the Imperial Dunes in southern California and Amboy Crater in the Mojave Desert, CA, form the basis for a trial ontology of analog environments which have varying degrees of analogy to potential environments of interest on Mars for exploration of its habitability potential. We present a trial taxonomy for Mars analog environments to which we can add the attributes of other environments advocated as Earth analogs for Mars. References: [1] Bunge,M.,Treatise on Basic Philosophy: Ontology I, The Furniture of the World, Reidel, 1977. [2] Gruber, T. R., (1993). Knowledge Acquisition, 5(2):199-220.
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