From Habitability to Life on Mars

ISBN-13: 9780128099353 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 390 str.

Nathalie A. Cabrol; Edmond A. Grin

Recenzje

"In short, we are faced with an excellent lens technical text that allows us to better understand the current state of the astrobiological problem on Mars, as well as the steps that in the coming years we will undertake in the hope of tackling one of the most three adventures humanity can face: the search for life forms beyond borders of our little blue planet." --OTRAS Publication

Spis treści

1. Habilitability as a Tool in Astrobiological Exploration 2. An Origin of Life on Mars? 3. Remote Detection of Phyllosilicates on Mars and Implications for Climate and Habitability 4. Are Recurring Slope Linae (RSL) Habitable? 5. Martian Habitability as Inferred from Landed Missions 6. Archean Lakes as Analogues for Habitable Martian Environments 7. Evolution of Altiplanic Lake Habitats and Biosignatures at the Pleistocene/Holocene Transition 8. Siliceous Hot Spring Deposits: Why they Remain Key Astrobiological Targets 9. UV Radiation on Mars 10. Habitability and Biomarker Preservation in the Martian Near-Surface Environment 11. Mars 2020 12. ExoMars

O autorze

Cabrol is the Principal Investigator of the SETI Institute team that was selected by the NASA Astrobiology Institute in October 2014 to lead a 5-year project entitled: Changing Planetary Environments and the Fingerprints of Life. See: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/teams/can-7/seti/ The project is about the search for habitability and life on Mars leading to the Mars 2020 mission. Additionally, as of August 7th 2015, Cabrol became the Director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, leading the science for multidisciplinary research scientists who search for life beyond Earth from prebiotic chemistry, to the exploration of the Solar System, the exoplanets, and the search for technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. Grin has an academic background in hydrogeology, and for 30 years worked on dam and hydropower projects. His familiarity with the characteristics of lakes and rivers on Earth makes him especially valuable when it comes to looking for similar features on Mars, where NASA's exploration strategy has been to "follow the water.” Grin, together with his wife, Cabrol, championed Gusev crater - an apparent lake basin - as the landing site for the Spirit rover. A new three-year project in which Grin is involved, called "Life in the Atacama”, will demonstrate that autonomous robot rovers can reliably detect primitive microorganisms. The rovers will be field tested in Chile's Atacama desert, an earthly analog for the landscapes of Mars.