From Habitability to Life on Mars

From Habitability to Life on Mars
Author: Nathalie A. Cabrol
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2018-07-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128099364
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From Habitability to Life on Mars explores the current state of knowledge and questions on the past habitability of Mars and the role that rapid environmental changes may have played in the ability of prebiotic chemistry to transition to life. It investigates the role that such changes may have played in the preservation of biosignatures in the geological record and what this means for exploration strategies. Throughout the book, the authors show how the investigation of terrestrial analogs to early Martian habitats under various climates and environmental extremes provide critical clues to understand where, what and how to search for biosignatures on Mars. The authors present an introduction to the newest developments and state-of-the-art remote and in situ detection strategies and technologies that are being currently developed to support the upcoming ExoMars and Mars 2020 missions. They show how the current orbital and ground exploration is guiding the selection for future landing sites. Finally, the book concludes by discussing the critical question of the implications and ethics of finding life on Mars. Edited by the lead on a NASA project that searches for habitability and life on Mars leading to the Mars 2020 mission Presents the evidence, questions and answers we have today (including a summary of the current state of knowledge in advance of the ESA ExoMars and NASA Mars 2020 missions) Includes contributions from authors directly involved in past, current and upcoming Mars missions Provides key information as to how Mars rovers, such as ExoMars and Mars 2020, will address the search for life on Mars with their instrumentation

Preventing the Forward Contamination of Mars

Preventing the Forward Contamination of Mars
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2006-04-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 030909724X
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Recent spacecraft and robotic probes to Mars have yielded data that are changing our understanding significantly about the possibility of existing or past life on that planet. Coupled with advances in biology and life-detection techniques, these developments place increasing importance on the need to protect Mars from contamination by Earth-borne organisms. To help with this effort, NASA requested that the NRC examine existing planetary protection measures for Mars and recommend changes and further research to improve such measures. This report discusses policies, requirements, and techniques to protect Mars from organisms originating on Earth that could interfere with scientific investigations. It provides recommendations on cleanliness and biological burden levels of Mars-bound spacecraft, methods to reach those levels, and research to reduce uncertainties in preventing forward contamination of Mars.

Lakes on Mars

Lakes on Mars
Author: Nathalie A. Cabrol
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2010-09-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0080931626
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On Earth, lakes provide favorable environments for the development of life and its preservation as fossils. They are extremely sensitive to climate fluctuations and to conditions within their watersheds. As such, lakes are unique markers of the impact of environmental changes. Past and current missions have now demonstrated that water once flowed at the surface of Mars early in its history. Evidence of ancient ponding has been uncovered at scales ranging from a few kilometers to possibly that of the Arctic ocean. Whether life existed on Mars is still unknown; upcoming missions may find critical evidence to address this question in ancient lakebeds as clues about Mars’ climate evolution and its habitability potential are still preserved in their sedimentary record. Lakes on Mars is the first review on this subject. It is written by leading planetary scientists who have dedicated their careers to searching and exploring the questions of water, lakes, and oceans on Mars through their involvement in planetary exploration, and the analysis of orbital and ground data beginning with Viking up to the most recent missions. In thirteen chapters, Lakes on Mars critically discusses new data and explores the role that water played in the evolution of the surface of Mars, the past hydrological provinces of the planet, the possibility of heated lake habitats through enhanced geothermal flux associated with volcanic activity and impact cratering. The book also explores alternate hypotheses to explain the geological record. Topographic, morphologic, stratigraphic, and mineralogic evidence are presented that suggest successions of ancient lake environments in Valles Marineris and Hellas. The existence of large lakes and/or small oceans in Elysium and the Northern Plains is supported both by the global distribution of deltaic deposits and by equipotential surfaces that may reflect their past margins. Whether those environments were conducive to life has yet to be demonstrated but from comparison with our planet, their sedimentary deposits may provide the best opportunity to find its record, if any. The final chapters explore the impact of climate variability on declining lake habitats in one of the closest terrestrial analogs to Mars at the Noachian/Hesperian transition, identify the geologic, morphologic and mineralogic signatures of ancient lakes to be searched for on Mars, and present the case for landing the Mars Science Laboratory mission in such an environment. First review on the subject by worldwide leading authorities in the field New studies with most recent data, new images, figures, and maps Most recent results from research in terrestrial analogs

Is Mars Habitable? A Critical Examination of Professor Percival Lowell's Book "Mars and its Canals," with an Alternative Explanation

Is Mars Habitable? A Critical Examination of Professor Percival Lowell's Book
Author: Alfred Russel Wallace
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Total Pages: 103
Release: 1907-01-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1465560149
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Few persons except astronomers fully realise that of all the planets of the Solar system the only one whose solid surface has been seen with certainty is Mars; and, very fortunately, that is also the only one which is sufficiently near to us for the physical features of the surface to be determined with any accuracy, even if we could see it in the other planets. Of Venus we probably see only the upper surface of its cloudy atmosphere. As regards Jupiter and Saturn this is still more certain, since their low density will only permit of a comparatively small proportion of their huge bulk being solid. Their belts are but the cloud-strata of their upper atmosphere, perhaps thousands of miles above their solid surfaces, and a somewhat similar condition seems to prevail in the far more remote planets Uranus and Neptune. It has thus happened, that, although as telescopic objects of interest and beauty, the marvellous rings of Saturn, the belts and ever-changing aspects of the satellites of Jupiter, and the moon-like phases of Venus, together with its extreme brilliancy, still remain unsurpassed, yet the greater amount of details of these features when examined with the powerful instruments of the nineteenth century have neither added much to our knowledge of the planets themselves or led to any sensational theories calculated to attract the popular imagination. But in the case of Mars the progress of discovery has had a very different result. The most obvious peculiarity of this planet—its polar snow-caps—were seen about 250 years ago, but they were first proved to increase and decrease alternately, in the summer and winter of each hemisphere, by Sir William Herschell in the latter part of the eighteenth century. This fact gave the impulse to that idea of similarity in the conditions of Mars and the earth, which the recognition of many large dusky patches and streaks as water, and the more ruddy and brighter portions as land, further increased. Added to this, a day only about half an hour longer than our own, and a succession of seasons of the same character as ours but of nearly double the length owing to its much longer year, seemed to leave little wanting to render this planet a true earth on a smaller scale. It was therefore very natural to suppose that it must be inhabited, and that we should some day obtain evidence of the fact.

Volatiles in the Martian Crust

Volatiles in the Martian Crust
Author: Justin Filiberto
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2018-08-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 012804201X
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Volatiles in the Martian Crust is a vital reference for future missions - including ESA’s EXO Mars and NASA’s Mars2020 rover - looking for evidence of life on Mars and the potential for habitability and human exploration of the Martian crust. Mars science is a rapidly evolving topic with new data returned from the planet on a daily basis. The book presents chapters written by well-established experts who currently focus on the topic, providing the reader with a fresh, up-to-date and accurate view. Organized into two main sections, the first half of the book focuses on the Martian meteorites and specific volatile elements. The second half of the book explores processes and locations on the crust, including what we have learned about volatile mobility in the Martian crust. Coverage includes data from orbiter and in situ rovers and landers, geochemical and geophysical modeling, and combined data from the SNC meteorites. Presents information about the nature, relationship, and reactivity of chemical elements and compounds on Mars Explores the potential habitability of Mars Provides a comprehensive view of volatiles in the Martian crust from studies of actual samples as well as from the variety of landed missions, including the MER and Curiosity rovers Delivers a vital reference for ongoing and future missions to Mars while synthesizing large data sets and research on volatiles in the Martian atmosphere Concludes with an informative summary chapter that looks to future Mars missions and what might be learned

An Astrobiology Strategy for the Exploration of Mars

An Astrobiology Strategy for the Exploration of Mars
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2007-06-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309179416
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Three recent developments have greatly increased interest in the search for life on Mars. The first is new information about the Martian environment including evidence of a watery past and the possibility of atmospheric methane. The second is the possibility of microbial viability on Mars. Finally, the Vision for Space Exploration initiative included an explicit directive to search for the evidence of life on Mars. These scientific and political developments led NASA to request the NRC's assistance in formulating an up-to-date integrated astrobiology strategy for Mars exploration. Among other topics, this report presents a review of current knowledge about possible life on Mars; an astrobiological assessment of current Mars missions; a review of Mars-mission planetary protection; and findings and recommendations. The report notes that the greatest increase in understanding of Mars will come from the collection and return to Earth of a well-chosen suite of Martian surface materials.

Life on Mars

Life on Mars
Author: David A. Weintraub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2020-11-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 069120926X
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The search for life on Mars—and the moral issues confronting us as we prepare to send humans there Does life exist on Mars? The question has captivated humans for centuries, but today it has taken on new urgency. As space agencies gear up to send the first manned missions to the Red Planet, we have a responsibility to think deeply about what kinds of life may already dwell there—and whether we have the right to invite ourselves in. Telling the complete story of our ongoing quest to answer one of the most tantalizing questions in astronomy, David Weintraub grapples with the profound moral and ethical questions confronting us as we prepare to introduce an unpredictable new life form—ourselves—into the Martian biosphere. Now with an afterword that discusses the most recent discoveries, Life on Mars explains what we need to know before we go.

The Cosmic Zoo

The Cosmic Zoo
Author: Dirk Schulze-Makuch
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2017-11-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319620452
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Are humans a galactic oddity, or will complex life with human abilities develop on planets with environments that remain habitable for long enough? In a clear, jargon-free style, two leading researchers in the burgeoning field of astrobiology critically examine the major evolutionary steps that led us from the distant origins of life to the technologically advanced species we are today. Are the key events that took life from simple cells to astronauts unique occurrences that would be unlikely to occur on other planets? By focusing on what life does - it's functional abilities - rather than specific biochemistry or anatomy, the authors provide plausible answers to this question. Systematically exploring the various pathways that led to the complex biosphere we experience on planet Earth, they show that most of the steps along that path are likely to occur on any world hosting life, with only two exceptions: One is the origin of life itself – if this is a highly improbable event, then we live in a rather “empty universe”. However, if this isn’t the case, we inevitably live in a universe containing a myriad of planets hosting complex as well as microbial life - a “cosmic zoo”. The other unknown is the rise of technologically advanced beings, as exemplified on Earth by humans. Only one technological species has emerged in the roughly 4 billion years life has existed on Earth, and we don’t know of any other technological species elsewhere. If technological intelligence is a rare, almost unique feature of Earth's history, then there can be no visitors to the cosmic zoo other than ourselves. Schulze-Makuch and Bains take the reader through the history of life on Earth, laying out a consistent and straightforward framework for understanding why we should think that advanced, complex life exists on planets other than Earth. They provide a unique perspective on the question that puzzled the human species for centuries: are we alone?

Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars
Author: Martin Beech
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 596
Release: 2021-12-09
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1119761964
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TERRAFORMING MARS This book provides a thorough scientific review of how Mars might eventually be colonized, industrialized, and transformed into a world better suited to human habitation. The idea of terraforming Mars has, in recent times, become a topic of intense scientific interest and great public debate. Stimulated in part by the contemporary imperative to begin geoengineering Earth, as a means to combat global climate change, the terraforming of Mars will work to make its presently hostile environment more suitable to life—especially human life. Geoengineering and terraforming, at their core, have the same goal—that is to enhance (or revive) the ability of a specific environment to support human life, society, and industry. The chapters in this text, written by experts in their respective fields, are accordingly in resonance with the important, and ongoing discussions concerning the human stewardship of global climate systems. In this sense, the text is both timely and relevant and will cover issues relating to topics that will only grow in their relevance in future decades. The notion of terraforming Mars is not a new one, as such, and it has long played as the background narrative in many science fiction novels. This book, however, deals exclusively with what is physically possible, and what might conceivably be put into actual practice within the next several human generations. Audience Researchers in planetary science, astronomy, astrobiology, space engineering, architecture, ethics, as well as members of the space industry.

Mars Geological Enigmas

Mars Geological Enigmas
Author: Richard Soare
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 556
Release: 2021-05-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128202467
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Mars Geological Enigmas: From the Late Noachian Epoch to the Present Day presents outstanding questions on the geology of Mars and divergent viewpoints based on varying interpretations and analyses. The result is a robust and comprehensive discussion that provides opportunities for planetary scientists to develop their own opinions and ways forward. Each theme opens with an introduction that includes background on the topic and lays out questions to be addressed. Alternate perspectives are covered for each topic, including methods, observations, analyses, and in-depth discussion of the conclusions. Chapters within each theme reference each other to facilitate comparison and deeper understanding of divergent opinions. Offers a transchronological view of the geological history of Mars, addressing thematic questions from a broad temporal perspective Discusses outstanding questions on Mars from diverging perspectives Includes key questions and answers, as well as a look ahead to which puzzles remain to be solved