Exploration of Planets Past, Present, and Future
Habitability
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With this task, we pursue our research in sedimentology
related to the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission
(mission data and terrestrial analogs), which has now
entered its third extended mission and the interpretation
of orbital imagery focusing on the basin deposits of the
martian highlands. Our objective is to characterize and map
potential life habitats from the ground and orbit. The
current missions show that Mars was habitable in the past
and possibly still habitable today in specific environments
(e.g., the discovery of ice, salts, and potential nutrients
at the Phoenix landing site, and orbiters observation of
abundant subsurface ice and geologically recent volcanic
activity that could have provided water and energy). There
is, therefore, a possibility that life, if it ever appeared
on Mars, might have survived the climatic transition of the
Noachian/Hesperian period, 3.7-3.2 Gy ago up to the
present, and could still be sheltered from hostile
environmental surface conditions. In that perspective,the
identification and characterization of underground habitats
is becoming a priority in the search for life on Mars. As a
result, within that task - and in addition to the tasks
related to our participation to the MER team - we are now
initiating a sub-task which objective will be the
geological and morphological characterization of regions on
Mars where caves could have formed and are possibly
sheltering microbial life. The interest of caves is not
only astrobiological. Human exploring planets will require
shelters against hostile planetary environments as well as
habitats. The idea that caves could be used as a foundation
for human habitats on the Moon and Mars is being seriously
considered by NASA. As a result, it is critical to develop
the tools and skills to detect them. This new task will
support this effort and is relevant to both NASA’s human
exploration and astrobiology science objectives.
From Habitability to Life
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Building upon the results of the MER mission, and of our
theoretical, experimental, and field work in high-altitude
lakes, we bring the focus of this new proposal to the
transition from habitability to life. The MER mission has
demonstrated that Mars was habitable for life as we know it
(in its microbial form) in its early geological history.
But habitability does not equate to life, and critical
questions have yet to be answered. A sample of those are:
* Did the transition happen?
* What was the biological potential of Mars?
* What were the environments where life could have had the
mostly likely chance to develop and, perhaps, survive?
* What kind of extreme conditions did life face?
* What types of adaptation and survival tools and skills
could life have used?
* If Mars developed life, can we still find its geological,
mineralogical, or biological signatures today, whether it
is extinct or extant?