[meteorite-list] Major Milestone for Detecting Life on Mars

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Sep 13 19:03:08 2004
Message-ID: <200409132303.QAA22005_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/news_releases/news_040909.html

Carnegie Institution of Washington
September 9, 2004

Contact Dr. Andrew Steele, at 202-478-8974, email a.steele_at_gl.ciw.edu;
Dr. Jake Maule, at 202-478-8989, j.maule_at_gl.ciw.edu <mailto:j.maule@gl.ciw.edu>;
Dr. Hans Amundsen at 0047 90043976, email h.e.f.amundsen_at_fys.uio.no; or
Dr. Pamela Conrad, 818-354-2114, conrad_at_jpl.nasa.gov

IMAGES available at http://homepage.mac.com/steelie/PhotoAlbum13.html

Major milestone for detecting life on Mars

Washington, D.C. "To detect life on Mars, we have to devise instruments
to recognize it and design them in such a way to get them to the Red
Planet most efficiently," said Dr. Andrew Steele of the Carnegie
Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, a member of an international team*
<#note> designing devices and techniques to find life on Mars. "We've
passed a major milestone. We successfully tested an integrated Mars
life-detection strategy for the first time and showed that if life on
Mars resembles life on Earth at all, we'll be able to find even a
single-cell," he remarked.

Steele is part of the interdisciplinary, international Arctic Mars
Analogue Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) team, which is creating a sampling
and analysis strategy that could be used for future Mars missions where
real-time decision-making on the planet surface will be needed to search
for signs of life. Their two-stage strategy involves an initial analysis
of the surface to find good target sites and then subsequent collection
and analysis protocols to study the samples.

Because its geology is much like Mars, this year's AMASE team just
completed a two-week fieldwork expedition in the challenging environment
of Bockfjorden on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, which at close to
80? N has the world's northern-most hot springs above sea level.

The AMASE team, led by Dr. Hans Amundsen of Physics of Geological
Processes (PGP), University of Oslo, Norway, deployed a suite of
life-detection instruments in the frigid Arctic environment, including
two spectroscopic instruments deployed by Dr. Pamela Conrad (of JPL and
a Carnegie visiting investigator), and Dr. Arthur Lane (of JPL). The
instruments are highly sensitive to certain organic and mineralogical
markers, or fingerprints, and have the capacity to identify local "hot
spots," which are likely to be good targets for finding life. These
instruments were tested on hot-spring deposited carbonate terraces
containing rock-dwelling (endolithic) bacteria, and within lava conduits
on the Sverrefjell volcano. This volcano is currently the nearest
terrestrial analogue to the processes that produced features (Carbonate
rosettes) that have been found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001.

The Carnegie team** led by Dr. Steele, deployed a suite of
specially adapted off-the-shelf instruments to rapidly detect and
characterize low levels of microbiota. The results of the tests can be
used for independent validation, and to cross check among the
instruments for greater information than any instrument can yield on its
own. Field analysis also allows real-time understanding of the
environment, thus permitting the scientists to gather pertinent samples
and test hypothesis with minimal sample disturbance. The suite of
instruments included standard genetic techniques to identify and
characterize bacterial populations (Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR); a
highly sensitive instrument to detect cell wall components (a PTS unit,
which was developed by Charles River, and Norm Wainwright of MBL); an
instrument to measure cellular activity by analyzing the flux of the
energy-storing molecule ATP; and most significantly, protein microarrays.

Protein microarrays are capable of testing for the presence of many
hundreds or even thousands of molecules simultaneously. These molecules
are not limited to large proteins or cells - smaller molecules i.e., amino
acids and nucleotides, the building blocks of life on Earth, can also be
found. The Carnegie team has pioneered the use of this technology,
principally for life-detection for Mars missions, and has recently been
advocating its use in astronaut health and environmental monitoring for
long-duration human space flight. "This expedition marks the first time
these arrays have been used in the field," commented Dr. Jake Maule of
Carnegie, who was responsible for this aspect of the research. Initial
results indicate that the team was able to maintain sterile conditions
and that the positive results from the protein arrays correlate with
PCR, PTS and ATP analysis, as well as the spectroscopic techniques
deployed by JPL.

Samples are currently being tested further in the Carnegie labs to
verify the field data, and additional expeditions are planned to refine
the strategy, technology, and remote operation over the next three years.

The long-term aim of the project is to fully characterize the geology
and biology of the Bockfjorden area, to understand the role of biology
in the formation and weathering of carbonate deposits that are the only
known terrestrial analogue to those found in Martian meteorites. This
project will also allow verification of sample acquisition and analysis
in simulations at Svalbard, and future missions to Mars and Europa.

-------------------------

*The AMASE Team comes from the following institutions: Physics of
Geological Processes, University of Oslo, Norway; The Carnegie
Institution of Washington, Geophysical Laboratory; the University of
Leeds; Universidad de Burgos, Spain; GEMOC, Macquarie University,
Australia; NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; LPI - Lunar and Planetary
Institute; and Penn State University. The expedition photographer was
Kjell Ove Storvik.

**Dr. Andrew Steele, Dr. Marilyn Fogel, Maia Schweitzer, Dr. Jake Maule,
and Dr. Jan Toporski

Funding for this project was provided by the Carnegie Institution, with
additional support from NASA ASTEP, JPL, and the NASA Astrobiology
Institute.

The Carnegie Institution of Washington (www.CarnegieInstitution.org
<http://www.CarnegieInstitution.org>) has been a pioneering force in
basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit
organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie
scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology,
astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary
science.

The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) is a distributed national
organization for research and training, which explores questions about
the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.
The institute is composed of 16 teams involving more than 500
scientists, educators, and students. It extends across the United States
from Hawaii to Massachusetts.
Received on Mon 13 Sep 2004 07:03:00 PM PDT