Project Summary

Mars Underwater (MU) is a NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) funded project investigating the limits of life in several of the highest lakes on Earth. It is supported by the SETI Institute Center for the Study of Life in the Universe (LITU), NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), and Stanford University. This new project is building on a NASA Ames DDF reconnaissance on 6,014 m high Licancabur volcano (2002-2003) and will extend into 2008. MU will explore the summit lakes of the Licancabur, Poquentica, Aquas Calientes, and Acamarachi volcanoes located between 6,046 m and 5,950 m, focusing on habitats and the short and long-term effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on life. Their physical and environmental conditions are uniquely analogous to ancient martian lakes c.a. 3.5 billion years ago (Table 1). These lakes are open windows into the past habitability and biological potential of Mars. The study of their primitive ecosystems and microbial life will also provide critical clues to our own past and the understanding on how life originated and survived on Earth in early times when no ozone layer had yet formed to protect it.

This project will:

•  Explore and characterize habitats, life and its limits in the highest lakes on Earth as unique analogs to Mars. The first phase will deploy scientific expeditions in the Bolivian and Chilean Andes;

•  Identify the adaptation strategy developed by microbial life in shallow lakes against UV radiation;

•  Advance our understanding of both the habitability and biological potential of Mars and the limits of life on Earth;

•  Further our knowledge of the signatures of life, whether geological or biological, and help their remote and in situ identification on future missions to Mars;

•  Survey the adaptation of humans under extreme conditions and develop monitoring systems to increase astronauts safety in future manned planetary mission; Improve general public health; and

•  Develop an integrated educational and public outreach program to share the excitement of science, exploration, and discoveries with children, students, and the general public.

Table 1: Compared Physical and Environmental Conditions: Licancabur and Mars 3.5 Gyr. Ago.

The 2004 Expedition

The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission is demonstrating that Mars had environmental conditions suitable for life as we know it in early geological times, c.a. 3.5 billion years ago. The discovery of an ancient dry lake 30 times the volume of Lake Erie in Meridiani Planum and altered rocks in Gusev in the Columbia Hills is solid evidence of a sustained and abundant water activity over long periods of time. The presence of water, reduced compounds through widespread volcanism and potential nutrients through minerals show that life ingredients were present early on. It is unknown whether this potential for life was ever realized on Mars, but Spirit and Opportunity provide daily evidence that environments, such as lakes, existed and could have been favorable crucibles to its inception. Therefore the quest to answer the question over whether life was able to get a foothold in the Early Mars environment is at the scientific forefront as the MER mission enters its extended phase. The MU expeditions to Licancabur and beyond are documenting this exact question.

Our goals and objectives for the 2004 expedition are to:

Goal 1 : Collect critical astrobiological information about the limits of life on Earth and scientific clues about potential analogous sites on Mars; and Goal 2 : Define elements to design science mission strategies for robotic and human planetary exploration and the search for life in the Solar System.

Objective 1: Understand the environment and its analogy to Mars .

•  To map the geology, morphology and establish the bathymetry of unique ancient Mars lake analogs;

•  To sample and core sediments, characterize the mineralogy and compare with the lacustrine environments explored by the Mars Exploration Rovers in Gusev and Meridiani;

•  Study the geophysical environment by measuring temperature variations (sol, air, water), humidity, pressure, and UV flux;

•  Characterize and understand the physical extremes and their respective roles with respect to life and its adaptation, including: cold, UV, salt, wind, aridity, and low atmospheric pressure.

Objective 2: Identify and characterize habitats and life .

•  Establish the bio-mapping of microbial species living in the lake and explore for new species;

•  Understand the mechanisms of adaptation (or lack thereof) to UV radiation in very shallow waters with analogy to early Mars.

•  Discover and characterize the signatures of life, whether mineralogical or biological and learn to discriminate between living and non-living signatures;

Objective 3: Human physiology at high altitude: Implications for health and human exploration of space and planetary surfaces .

•  To monitor the physiological adaptation of humans in extreme environment;

•  To record unique physiological data from free diving at ~ 6000 meters elevation;