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)