Twenty-three researchers recently ventured into Western Australia?s Pilbara as part of NASA?s Spaceward Bound Program to analyse ancient rocks in the hope of finding signs of life similar to those that may possibly exist or have existed on Mars.
Macquarie University?s Dr Simon George was a part of the mission and says the Pilbara provides insight into what Mars was like in the past, containing extremely old rocks that recorded the first evidence of life on Earth.
?The best ones that we saw on the field trip were 3.5 billion years old. At that time on Mars the climate was warm and wet, quite similar to that on Earth,? Dr George said.
?If there was life on Mars at the time 3.5 billion years ago, what we know for sure is that that life did not continue to develop because the planet has been cold, dry and low in oxygen.
?It is possible that there is life below the surface that has not been tested, but the evolutionary pathways of the two planets are quite different.?
NASA planetary scientist Dr Chris McKay lead the Pilbara expedition. ?The formations we hope to find will look similar to the fossilised stromatilites in the Pilbara,? he said. ?We will be looking for characteristic bioflim layers which are the result of cyanobacteria – life on Mars.
?If we do, it will be the scientific discovery of the century.?
Dr McKay and Dr George said scientists also used the expedition to study several new methods of field research including testing a state of the art space suit.
?When astronauts eventually go to Mars, we need to know how geologists and others can identify key geological information from within the space suit. The testing we were doing was comparing how well people work within a space suit compared to outside of it,? he says.
?In addition, we visited modern stramatolites in Shark Bay and near Cervantes and comparing the morphology of the expanse of these stromatolites with fossilised ones we have seen previously,? Dr McKay said.
Researchers analysed Pilbara rocks using similar instruments to those that will be on the Mars Science Lander, an upcoming mission due to take off from the US in November this year and which will arrive on Mars in August 2012.
Source: ScienceNetworkWA