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Project Reports

• Simulating Preservation of Amino Acids and Peptides in Evaporitic Sulfate Deposits on the Surface of Mars

  In anticipation of human exploration, analytical strategies are urgently needed to characterize organic molecules in chemical and clastic deposits inferred to be present on or near the surface of Mars.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 6.1 6.2 7.1

• Evolution of Abiotic Environments to Ecosystems

  Field work in 2006-2007 included trips to the high Arctic and to the Precambrian Canadian Shield. Study sites were selected on the basis of temperature and contrasting levels of hydrogen. Study sites included environments impacted by permafrost and environments at latitudes south of persistent permafrost. The level of free hydrogen gas is temperature-dependent and appears to be an important controlling factor on microbial processes.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 3.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Drilling a Borehole for Sampling of Gases, Water, and Microbes in Sub-Permafrost Groundwater at High Lake, Nunavut Territory, Canada

   

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2

• Construction of a Borehole Apparatus for Sampling of Fluids and Microbes in Sub-Permafrost Groundwater, Nunavut Territory, Canada

  As part of the Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative, investigating physical and chemical limitations of life on earth with potential application for life-detecting strategies on Mars, Barry Freifeld at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab designed and constructed a borehole sampling device intended for installation at the High Lake project site (67°22’N, 110°50’W). This device will allow for long-term sampling of geofluids (gas and water) and microbes in an extreme groundwater environment.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.1 5.2 5.3

• Saline Lakes and Gypsum Dunes in the Rio Grande Rift System as Analogues for Sulfate Deposits on Mars

  Sulfates appear to be a significant part of rocks and regolith exposed at or near the surface of Mars. Important occurrences of sulfate minerals have been detected at latitudes extending from the polar region to lower latitudes in Meridiani Planum and Vallis Marineris. We are pursuing, therefore, a latitudinal study of Salt Basins developed along the Rio Grande Rift as a terrestrial analog to sulfate deposition in the past on Mars.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 7.1 7.2

• Stability of Methane Hydrates in the Presence of High Salinity Brines on Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 7.1 7.2

• Abiotic Experiments & Hydrocarbon Yielding Water/Mineral Reactions

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 7.1 7.2

• Experimental Study of Radiolytic Oxidation of Pyrite as a Source of Sulfate and Hydrogen to Sustain Microbial Metabolism

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.3 5.3 6.1 6.2

• Retentostat Studies of Subsurface Sulfate Reducing Bacterium

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Design and Assembly of a Cavity-Ring Down Spectrometer for Determination of Concentration and Isotopic Composition of Methane in Gases

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 7.1 7.2

• Laser Fluorometry for Remote Detection of Oxygenic Phototrophs on Earth And, Potentially, on Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.2 5.1 5.3

• Survival Capability of a Cold-Loving Microbe in a Mars Simulation Chamber

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 7.1