Frontiers | via EurekAlert | 2019 Feb 28
A trial NASA rover mission in the Mars-like Atacama desert has successfully recovered subterranean organisms -- strange, scattered, salt-resistant bacteria that could lead the search for Martian life deeper underground
A robotic rover deployed in the most Mars-like environment on Earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile, has successfully recovered subsurface soil samples during a trial mission to find signs of life. The samples contained unusual and highly specialized microbes that were distributed in patches, which researchers linked to the limited water availability, scarce nutrients and chemistry of the soil. These findings, published in Frontiers in Microbiology, will aid the search for evidence of signs of life during future planned missions to Mars. ...
In 2020 both NASA and the European Space Agency will embark on missions to deploy rovers on the surface of Mars. They will search for evidence of past or present life and for the first time, drill below the surface where refuges for simple microbial life may still exist.
To help ensure that these space missions succeed, technology is rigorously tested on Earth first. ...
Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment ~ Kimberley A. Warren-Rhodes et al
- Frontiers in Microbiology (28 Feb 2019) DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.00069
Prototype Mars Rover Gets Workout Controlled from 6,000 Miles Away
United Kingdom Space Agency | 2019 Feb 28
Experts at the European Space Agency’s centre in Oxfordshire completed a series of tests across nearly 6,900 miles (11,000 km) in order to see how the Mars rover reacts to commands across large distances.
When on the surface of Mars, the rover will need to be controlled when it is up to 250 million miles from Earth.
The trials team used a new model called ‘Charlie’ to test hardware, software and to practice science operations for the future European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars rover, which will look for life on Mars in 2021. The Atacama desert was chosen because it is the closest we can get to a Martian-like environment. ...
