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

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Read Full Article (file size: 309258 bytes) Cited by 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. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.

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