A prototype rover carrying an astrobiology payload was developed and deployed at analog field sites to mature generalized system architectures capable of searching for biosignatures in extreme terrain across the Solar System. Specifically, the four-l...
Scientists and astronomers have attached great importance to the task of discovering new exoplanets, even more so if they are in the habitable zone. To date, more than 4300 exoplanets have been confirmed by NASA, using various discovery techniques, i...
This is a digest of how various researchers in biology and astrobiology have explored questions of what defines living organisms-definitions based on functions or structures observed in organisms, or on systems terms, or on mathematical conceptions l...
The goals of Mars exploration are evolving beyond describing environmental habitability at global and regional scales to targeting specific locations for biosignature detection, sample return, and eventual human exploration. An increase in the specif...
We report on a field demonstration of a rover-based drilling mission to search for biomolecular evidence of life in the arid core of the Atacama Desert, Chile. The KREX2 rover carried the Honeybee Robotics 1 m depth The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exp...
In 2019, the Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) project field-tested an autonomous rover-mounted robotic drill prototype for a 6-Sol life detection mission to Mars (Icebreaker). ARADS drilled Mars-like materials in the Atacama Desert...
Life on Earth relies on mechanisms to store heritable information and translate this information into cellular machinery required for biological activity. In all known life, storage, regulation, and translation are provided by DNA, RNA, and ribosomes...
We propose a novel approach to identify the origin of pyrite grains and distinguish biologically influenced sedimentary pyrite using combined sulfur isotope (δS) and trace element (TE) analyses. To classify and predict the origin of individual pyrit...