Identification of biosignatures on Mars: the key to success of current and future rover missions

The search for life on Mars is currently focused on the detection of organic molecules on or beneath the planet's surface, trapped within mineral structures and ice particles. Of particular interest are ancient lacustrine environments highly suitable for the development of microbial communities and the preservation of biosignatures. In the late 2020s the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover will arrive at Mars, landing in Oxia Planum.

Orbital observations suggest that a standing body of water would have covered almost the entire ExoMars rover landing ellipse and subaqueous episodes created a 10 km long deltaic fan. These environments and their subsequent sedimentary deposits are excellent locations for the collection, concentration, and preservation of organic material derived from both the lake environment and the surrounding catchment areas, and as such will be ideal targets for biosignature detection and the search for ancient life on Mars.

To help the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover and to help interpret results currently being returned by the Mars2020 rover, we need to find and identify suitable astrobiological targets, which requires an integrated understanding of how and where we can identify biosignatures and their mineralogical host rocks, together with an expectation of the extent to which surface materials and frozen water will mask any organic molecular signatures present. The overarching goal of this proposed research project is to characterise astrobiologically relevant mineralogical targets to aid these rover missions and help us prepare for Mars Sample Return activities.

It will include studies into the utility of ExoMars rover remote instruments, such as PanCam, to characterise these targets. These terrestrial-based analyses will be combined with in-situ Mars surface data from the Mars 2020 mission.