Earth to Mars: A Protocol for Characterizing Permafrost in the Context of Climate Change as an Analog for Extraplanetary Exploration.

ABSTRACT: Abstract Permafrost is important from an exobiology and climate change perspective. It serves as an analog for extraplanetary exploration, and it threatens to emit globally significant amounts of greenhouse gases as it thaws due to climate change. Viable microbes survive in Earth's permafrost, slowly metabolizing and transforming organic matter through geologic time. Ancient permafrost microbial communities represent a crucial resource for gaining novel insights into survival strategies adopted by extremotolerant organisms in extraplanetary analogs. We present a proof-of-concept study on ∼22 Kya permafrost to determine the potential for coupling Raman and fluorescence biosignature detection technology from the NASA Mars Perseverance rover with microbial community characterization in

SUBMITTER: Miner KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10510695 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature