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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 112, G04S08, doi:10.1029/2006JG000321, 2007

Life in the Atacama: A scoring system for habitability and the robotic exploration for life

Andrew N. Hock

Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA


Nathalie A. Cabrol

Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA


James M. Dohm

Hydrology and Water Resources Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA


Jennifer Piatek

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA


Kim Warren-Rhodes

Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA


Shmuel Weinstein

Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center, Mellon Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


David S. Wettergreen

Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Edmond A. Grin

Space Science Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA


Jeffrey Moersch

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA


Charles S. Cockell

Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK


Peter Coppin

Eventscope, Remote Experience and Learning Laboratory, Studio for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Lauren Ernst

Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center, Mellon Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Gregory Fisher

Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center, Mellon Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Craig Hardgrove

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA


Lucia Marinangeli

International Research School of Planetary Sciences, Pescara, Italy


Edwin Minkley

Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center, Mellon Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Gian Gabriele Ori

International Research School of Planetary Sciences, Pescara, Italy


Alan Waggoner

Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center, Mellon Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Mike Wyatt

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA


Trey Smith

Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


David Thompson

Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Michael Wagner

Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Dominic Jonak

Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Kristen Stubbs

Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


Geb Thomas

GROK Laboratory, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA


Erin Pudenz

GROK Laboratory, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA


Justin Glasgow

GROK Laboratory, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA


Abstract

The science goals of the Life in the Atacama (LITA) robotic field experiment are to understand habitat and seek out life in the Atacama Desert, Chile, as an analog to future missions to Mars. To those ends, we present a new data analysis tool, the LITA Data Scoring System (DSS), which (1) integrates rover and orbital data relevant to environmental habitability and life detection, and (2) provides a standard metric, or “score” to evaluate (a) the potential habitability, and (b) the strength of evidence for life at all locales along the rover's traverse. Designed and tested during the 2005 field campaign, first results from the DSS indicate that the three selected sites in the Atacama Desert are generally inhospitable. The strength of evidence for life is positively correlated with potential habitability at two of the three sites. Using factor analysis, we find three factors explain 79.9% of the variance in biological observations and five factors explain 96.2% of the variance in potential habitability across all sites. These factors are used to focus a discussion of scoring variable definitions for future robotic missions in the Atacama and of instrument selection and strategy development for future robotic missions on Earth and Mars.

Received 20 September 2006; accepted 21 November 2007; published 29 December 2007.

Keywords: life in extreme environments; Mars; instruments and techniques; South America; geomicrobiology.

Index Terms: 0456 Biogeosciences: Life in extreme environments; 6225 Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Mars; 0452 Biogeosciences: Instruments and techniques; 9360 Geographic Location: South America; 0448 Biogeosciences: Geomicrobiology.


Read Full Article (file size: 309258 bytes)    Cited by

Citation: Hock, A. N., et al. (2007), Life in the Atacama: A scoring system for habitability and the robotic exploration for life, J. Geophys. Res., 112, G04S08, doi:10.1029/2006JG000321.