Life Detection and Microbial Biomarker Profiling with Signs of Life Detector-Life Detector Chip During a Mars Drilling Simulation Campaign in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert.

ABSTRACT: The low organic matter content in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert, together with abrupt temperature shifts and high ultraviolet radiation at its surface, makes this region one of the best terrestrial analogs of Mars and one of the best scenarios for testing instrumentation devoted to in situ planetary exploration. We have operated remotely and autonomously the SOLID-LDChip (Signs of Life Detector-Life Detector Chip), an antibody microarray-based sensor instrument, as part of a rover payload during the 2019 NASA Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) Mars drilling simulation campaign. A robotic arm collected drilled cuttings down to 80 cm depth and loaded SOLID to process and assay them with LDChip for searching for molecular biomarkers. A remote science team re

SUBMITTER: Moreno-Paz M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10825288 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature