The rover robot, deployed in the most Mars-like environment on Earth, in the Atacama desert in Chile, successfully extracted soil samples during a test mission to search for signs of life. They contained unusual microbes that were present in areas with limited access to water, nutrient deficiencies and unfavorable chemical composition of the soil. The results, will help to find signs of life during future missions to Mars.
We have shown that the rover can extract the subsurface soil in the most Mars-like desert on Earth. This is important, as most scientists agree that any life on Mars should occur under the surface, hiding from the harsh conditions of the outside world, where high radiation, low temperature and water scarcity make life unlikely,.
-Yale Stephen Poynting -NUS College in Singapore, who led the study of microbes
Scientists have discovered microbes adapted to the high level of salts that can be expected in the depths of Mars, and, as it turned out, these microorganisms are very different from those that were previously found on the surface of deserts.
In 2020, NASA and ESA will begin the task of deploying rovers on the surface of Mars. They will look for evidence of past or present life and first drill the depths of the Red Planet, where there may still be a safe haven for simple microbial life. In extreme conditions, life is not easy to find, so the rovers will need to dig deep. To ensure the successful implementation of complex space missions, technologies and tools are rigorously tested on Earth.
The Atacama Desert Center in Chile is very dry, with no precipitation for decades. It is subject to strong ultraviolet radiation and consists of extremely saline soil. This is the closest coincidence on our planet with Mars, which makes this desert suitable for rehearsals for future missions.
-Stephen Poynting
In the Atacama Desert, an autonomous robotic drill and sampling device developed by the Carnegie Mellon Institute of Robotics was deployed by NASA. The task of the installation was the sampling of sediments at a depth of 80 centimeters. Stephen Poynting’s team compared the samples obtained by the rover with soil samples carefully collected by hand. They discovered the similarity of bacterial life in sediments extracted by both methods, which indicates the success of the test mission, and also found that microbes were distributed unevenly due to limitations in water, nutrient deficiencies and soil geochemistry.
The results confirm the basic environmental rule, according to which microbial life is heterogeneous in the most extreme habitats of the Earth. This alludes to the fact that in the past or present life on other planets can also manifest itself as “spots.” Our results – a significant contribution to the guide to finding life on Mars. They demonstrate the effectiveness of robotic search and sampling strategies.
-study co-authors Natalie Kabrol and Kim Warren-Rhodes from the SETI Institute (USA)
At the next stage, the researchers will try to get samples from a greater depth. Missions on Mars are planning to drill at 2 meters, and ground-based efforts will help identify potential problems after deploying rovers on the Red Planet.
Test mission to find Martian life in the Chilean desert
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