Biology
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p33c..02m&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P33C-02
Biology
[5200] Planetary Sciences: Astrobiology, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars
Scientific paper
Two Viking missions, each with an orbiter and a lander, were launched in 1975. These missions provided us with a tremendous amount of information about Mars, but left us with the view of a barren red planet. In 1977, diverse and complex life was discovered in hydrothermal vents along the Galapagos Rift, a branch of the East Pacific Rise, broadening our intellectual understanding of what constitutes a habitable zone. Since that time, our concept of the limits to life has continued to shrink and the potential habitability of Mars has continued to expand. The possibility of life on Mars has become a scientific issue of profound importance and of public interest. The modern era of Mars exploration, starting with Mars Global Surveyor in 1996, has followed the strategy of progressive steps in improving our understanding of Mars, leading to missions that would determine whether life ever arose there (NASA 1994 special publication - 530, An Exobiology Strategy for Mars Exploration). Through a succession of orbital and landed missions, Mars has been discovered to have had standing bodies of water, transforming our imagined lifeless desert planet to one that has the potential for life in the past, or even the present. If Mars astrobiology investigations do not find evidence of life, nevertheless they would provide snapshots of the environmental conditions back through time to the earliest periods of the solar system, when life arose on Earth. The current lander in development, the Mars Science Laboratory, will be the first Mars Astrobiology mission since Viking. This 2011 mission is an extremely capable roving analytical laboratory with ten instruments and able to determine, elemental composition, mineralogy, and discover and characterize organic compounds. This mission sets the stage for the coming decade, as Mars exploration moves from the theme “follow the water” to “seek the signs of life”.
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