Published in Astrobiology
The evolution of habitable conditions on Mars is often tied to the existence of aquatic habitats and largely constrained to the first billion years of the planet. Here, we propose an alternate, lasting evolutionary trajectory that assumes the colonization of land habitats before the end of the Hesperian period (ca. 3 billion years ago) at a pace si...
Published in International Journal of Astrobiology
This work presents a method with which to automate simple aspects of geologic image analysis during space exploration. Automated image analysis on board the spacecraft can make operations more efficient by generating compressed maps of long traverses for summary downlink. It can also enable immediate automatic responses to science targets of opport...
Published in International Journal of Astrobiology
In this paper, we examine a restricted subset of the question of possible alien biochemistries. That is, we look into how different life might be if it emerged in environments similar to that required for life on Earth. We advocate a principle of chance and necessity in biochemistry. According to this principle, biochemistry is in some fundamental ...
Published in International Journal of Astrobiology
Published in International Journal of Astrobiology
Published in International Journal of Astrobiology
Published in Astrobiology
Hygroscopic salts have been detected in soils in the northern latitudes of Mars, and widespread chloride-bearing evaporitic deposits have been detected in the southern highlands. The deliquescence of hygroscopic minerals such as chloride salts could provide a local and transient source of liquid water that would be available for microorganisms on t...
Published in International Journal of Astrobiology
Published in International Journal of Astrobiology
Published in International Journal of Astrobiology
Actively forming gypsum deposits at the Guerrero Negro sabkha and saltern system provided habitats for stratified, pigmented microbial communities that exhibited significant morphological and phylogenetic diversity. These deposits ranged from meter-thick gypsum crusts forming in saltern seawater concentration ponds to columnar microbial mats with i...
