Biology
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p41b..08m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P41B-08
Biology
[5200] Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars, [6297] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Instruments And Techniques
Scientific paper
The Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) continued its multi-year campaign in August 2009 to study selected sedimentary and igneous environments in this geological diverse archipelago using a variety of measurement techniques and protocols that are candidates for future Mars missions. The X-ray diffraction mineralogical and evolved gas analysis (EGA) employed during the AMASE-2009 campaign closely mimicked similar experiments that are planned for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Field instruments similar to those under development for the ESA ExoMars or other rover missions provided imaging, spectroscopic, and subsurface sounding data. A variety of microbiology and field life detection techniques rounded out the AMASE-2009 analytical tools. The evolved gas mass spectrometer utilized on AMASE-2009 was designed to model elements of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments on MSL. Powdered rock samples were heated from ambient to 1000 C in a helium stream and evolved gases continuously analyzed by a mass spectrometer. A continued focus of AMASE-2009 was analysis of carbonates from the Spitsbergen Sverrefjell volcano [1]. The similarity of macromolecular carbon (MMC) associated with magnetite in carbonate globules found in an ice cave in Sverrefjell to those studied in the Mars meteorite ALH84001 has been a motivation for their intensive study. The MMC associated with these carbonates appears to have been formed abiotically [2] following the eruption of the Sverrefjell volcano into glacial ice. The AMASE-2008 EGA studies of microsampled carbonate layers are described and the ability and limitations of these in situ tools to distinguish biomarkers. [1] H. Amundsen, Nature 327, 692-695 (1987). [2] A. Steele et al., Meteoritics and Planetary Science 42, 1549-1566 (2007) Acknowledgement: Support of this work is from the NASA ASTEP program with A. Steele AMASE PI and H. Amundsen Expedition lead.
Eigenbrode Jennifer
Mahaffy Paul R.
McAdam A.
Steele Andrew
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