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AGU: Journal of Geophysical Research, Biogeosciences

 

Keywords

  • life in extreme environments
  • Mars
  • instruments and techniques
  • South America
  • geomicrobiology

Index Terms

  • Biogeosciences: Life in extreme environments
  • Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Mars
  • Biogeosciences: Instruments and techniques
  • Geographic Location: South America
  • Biogeosciences: Geomicrobiology
Abstract
Cited By (0)
 

Abstract

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

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.

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.

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