Search for Martian Microbes

The UK Space Agency has endorsed an experiment proposal submitted to the

NASA ROSES­2015: The Mars Science Laboratory Participating Scientist

Program by a group of scientists including two members of BCAB, Barry E.

DiGregorio and Gilbert V. Levin. Ronald I. Dorn a Professor of Geography of

Arizona State University, in Tempe, Arizona, Giorgio Bianciardi a Researcher and

Adjunct Professor at the Dept of Medical Biotechnologies at Siena University,

Italy, and Robert Lodder, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University

of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington Kentucky, are also participants. The

proposal, titled “A search for extant endolithic and hypolithic microbial

communities”, if selected by NASA and the UK Space Agency, would be the first

effort to look for evidence of current life on Mars since Viking in 1976. Already

endorsed but awaiting funding approval by the UK Space Agency, the new

proposal would be a part of Curiosity’s Extended Mission objectives from October

2015­2019 as the rover makes the long climb to the top of the 8­kilometer Mount

Sharp. The Buckingham proposal seeks to use the frequencies of special

spectroscopic filters on the Mast Camera and MAHLI microscopic imager camera

on the Curiosity to look for evidence of microorganisms. Photosynthetic pigments,

portions of or intact microorganisms (endolithic microbes) that might be alive

inside freshly broken or those living under rocks (hypolithic microbes) would be

sought. The rover wheels sometimes break open or turn over rocks providing

fresh surfaces. Read the full BCAB press release: University of Buckingham

astrobiologists endorsed by UK Space Agency to look for life on

Mars(http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp­content/uploads/2011/09/University­of­

Buckingham­Astrobiologists­Endorsed­by­UK­Space­Agency­to­Look­for­Life­on­

Mars.pdf)