Roving the AMASEing Arctic

The 2009 AMASE expedition in now underway on the Norwegian island of Svalbard. Members of the expedition team are providing updates on scientific activities as they test technologies for future Mars missions in the harsh, arctic terrain. The primary goal of the AMASE team is to develop methods to search for life on other planets in our solar system, such as Mars.

Source: [astrobio.net]

August 17, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Wanted: Easy-Going Martian Roommates

Mars is not for the finicky. If something does live there, it’s likely going to be similar to the more adaptive life forms on our planet. A group of researchers is studying a particular microbe that they think could be a model for Mars life.

Source: [astrobio.net]

July 13, 2009 / Written by: Michael Schirber

Phoenix Results Point to Climate Cycles

The first major peer-reviewed reports on the finding of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Mission have been published in the journal Science. The reports show how favorable chemistry and episodes of liquid water could have made the Phoenix landing site habitable for microbes in Mars’ past. In fact, it is possible that the site could become habitable again in Mars’ future according to Phoenix Principal Investigator, Peter Smith (ASU).

Source: [astrobio.net]

July 5, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

A New Way to Keep Clean

It is almost impossible to get a spacecraft completely clean before launch. Therefore, missions to other planets carry some risk of forward contamination – where microorganisms from Earth travel along with the spacecraft to its destination. This is a big problem in the search for life on planets like Mars, because you don’t want to contaminate the site you’re going to be studying. To help combat this problem, a team of scientists funded by a NASA ASTEP award have developed a new cleaning protocol that could be used for future missions to Mars and beyond.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

June 9, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Windy, Wet and Wild

The team behind NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers has released new results from the two years that Opportunity spent exploring Victoria Crater. Opportunity’s instruments have revealed more evidence for a windy and wet past on Mars. The findings further our understanding of the habitability of ancient Mars.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

Too Salty to Freeze

Liquid water has been detected and photographed for the first time on Mars. Researchers have identified salty, liquid water on a leg of NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander. The discovery means that previous assumptions that water could only exist as ice and vapor on Mars due to the planet’s surface temperature and pressure may be incorrect.

The team from the University of Michigan believes that the droplets are highly salty water that splashed onto Phoenix’s leg when the spacecraft’s landing jets melted ice just below the martian surface. The mud droplets appeared to grow over time as they absorbed...

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Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

March 20, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Water May Have Shaped Solar System's Tallest Mountain

Using computer modeling, researchers have determined that Mars’ Olympus Mons volcano – the tallest mountain in the solar system – may have formed on a bed of clay and sediments. The researchers believe that pockets of ancient water may still be trapped beneath the mountain, potentially creating an environment suitable for life.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

March 7, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Methane-Spewing Martians?

A research team, funded as part of the Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development and Mission Concept Studies (ASTID), is building optical devices that may help scientists understand if methane on Mars could be a sign of life. The recent discovery of methane in the atmosphere of Mars raised the question of whether or not the gas could be produced by living organisms. The team hopes their instruments will be able to measure isotopic abundances in methane signatures that could distinguish a biological origin from a geological one.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

January 15, 2009 / Written by: Michael Schirber

MSL Delayed

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) will no longer launch in October of 2009 due to testing and hardware challenges that must be addressed in order to ensure a successful mission. The mission has been pushed back to 2011, when MSL will carry a science payload ten times larger than NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers to the martian surface. On Mars, MSL will study the martian environment and will help astrobiologists determine if Mars was once habitable for life as we know it.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

December 7, 2008 / Written by: NASA/JPL news release

Buried Martian Glaciers

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered vast glaciers of water ice that are protected beneath blankets of rocky debris on Mars. The glaciers are also present at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on the red planet. The discovery is helping scientists understand the past climate of Mars, and could help them determine if the planet was once a suitable habitat for life.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

November 25, 2008 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

A Divining Rod for Mars

Mars may have water underground but exactly where it is located is not known. An instrument on the Mars Science Laboratory will use neutrons to help spy for the water.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

November 13, 2008 / Written by: Michael Schirber