Journal articles

Habitability on Early Mars and the Search for Biosignatures with the ExoMars Rover

Jorge L. Vago ¹ Frances Westall ² Andrew J. Coates ³ Ralf Jaumann ⁴ Oleg Korablev ⁵ Valérie Ciarletti ⁶ Igor Mitrofanov ⁵ Jean-Luc Josset ⁷ Maria Cristina de Sanctis ⁸ Jean-Pierre Bibring ⁹ Fernando Rull ¹⁰ Fred Goesmann ¹¹ Harald Steininger ¹¹ Walter Goetz ¹¹ William Brinckerhoff ¹² Cyril Szopa ^{6, 13} François Raulin ¹⁴ Howell G.M. Edwards ¹⁵ Lyle G. Whyte ¹⁶ Alberto G. Fairen ¹⁷ John Bridges ¹⁸ Ernst Hauber ¹⁹ Gian Gabriele Ori ²⁰ Stephanie Werner ²¹ Damien Loizeau ²² Ruslan O. Kuzmin ²³ Rebecca M. E. Williams ²⁴ Jessica Flahaut ²⁵ Francois, Forget ²⁶ Daniel Rodionov ⁵ Håkan Svedhem ¹ Elliot Sefton-Nash ¹ Gerhard Kminek ¹ Leila Lorenzoni ¹ Luc Joudrier ¹ Viktor Mikhailov ²⁷ Alexander Zashchirinskiy ²⁸ Sergei Alexashkin ²⁸ Fabio Calantropio ²⁹ Andrea Merlo ²⁹ Pantelis Poulakis ¹ Olivier Witasse ¹ Olivier Bayle ¹ Silvia Bayón ¹ Uwe J. Meierhenrich ³⁰ John Carter ⁹ Juan Manuel García-Ruiz ¹⁵ Pietro Baglioni ¹ Albert Haldemann ¹ Andrew J. Ball ¹ André Debus ³¹ Robert Lindner ¹ Frédéric Haessig ¹ David Monteiro ¹ Roland Trautner ¹ Christoph Voland ¹ Pierre Rebeyre ¹ Duncan Goulty ¹ Frédéric Didot ¹ Stephen Durrant ¹ Eric Zekri ¹ Detlef Koschny ¹ Andrea Toni ¹ Gianfranco Visentin ¹ Martin Zwick ¹ Michel van Winnendael ¹ Martín Azkarate ¹ Christophe Carreau ¹

1 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre

2 CBM - Centre de biophysique moléculaire

3 MSSL - Mullard Space Science Laboratory

4 DLR Institut für Planetenforschung

5 IKI - Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

6 PLANETO - LATMOS

LATMOS - Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales

7 SPACE - X - Space Exploration Institute [Neuchâtel]

8 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF

9 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale

10 UVa - Universidad de Valladolid [Valladolid]

11 MPS - Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung

12 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

13 IUF - Institut Universitaire de France

14 LISA (UMR_7583) - Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques

15 Chemical and Forensic Sciences [Bradford]

16 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]

17 CAB - Centro de Astrobiologia [Madrid]

18 Space Research Centre [Leicester]

19 Freie Universität Berlin

20 IRSPS - International Research School of Planetary Sciences [Pescara]

21 CEED - Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics [Oslo]

22 LGL-TPE - Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon - Terre, Planètes, Environnement [Lyon]

23 GEOKHI - Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry

24 PSI - Planetary Science Institute [Tucson]

25 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie

26 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)

27 TsNIIMASH - Central Scientific Research Institute for Machine Building [Korolev]

28 Khimki - NPO S. Lavochkin

29 Thales Alenia Space Italia

30 ICN - Institut de Chimie de Nice

31 CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse]

Abstract : The second ExoMars mission will be launched in 2020 to target an ancient location interpreted to have strong potential for past habitability and for preserving physical and chemical biosignatures (as well as abiotic/prebiotic organics). The mission will deliver a lander with instruments for atmospheric and geophysical investigations and a rover tasked with searching for signs of extinct life. The ExoMars rover will be equipped with a drill to collect material from outcrops and at depth down to 2 m. This subsurface sampling capability will provide the best chance yet to gain access to chemical biosignatures. Using the powerful Pasteur payload instruments, the ExoMars science team will conduct a holistic search for traces of life and seek corroborating geological context information

Keywords : Astrobiology Search for life Landing sites Mars rover Biosignatures ExoMars

Document type :

Journal articles

Domain :

Sciences of the Universe [physics] / Astrophysics [astro-ph] / Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]

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Submitted on : Friday, August 18, 2017 - 1:09:49 PM
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