Habitability on Early Mars and the Search for Biosignatures with the ExoMars Rover

作者：Jorge L. Vago, Francès Westall, Landing S Pasteur Instrument Teams, A. J. Coates, R. Jaumann, Oleg Korablev, Valérie Ciarletti, И. Г. Митрофанов, Jean‐Luc Josset, M. C. De Sanctis, Jean‐Pierre Bibring, F. Rull, F. Goesmann, H. Steininger, W. Goetz, W. Brinckerhoff, Cyril Szopa, F. Raulin, Francès Westall, Howell G. M. Edwards, Lyle G. Whyte, Alberto González Fairén, Jean‐Pierre Bibring, J. C. Bridges, Ernst Hauber, G. G. Ori, Stéphanie C. Werner, D. Loizeau, R. O. Kuzmin, R. M. E. Williams, J. Flahaut, F. Forget, Jorge L. Vago, D. Rodionov, Oleg Korablev, H. Svedhem, E. Sefton‐Nash, Gerhard Kminek, L. Lorenzoni, Luc Joudrier, В. С. Михайлов, Alexander Zashchirinskiy, S. N. Alexashkin, F. Calantropio, Andrea Merlo, Pantelis Poulakis, Olivier Witasse, Olivier Bayle, Silvia Bayón, Uwe J. Meierhenrich, John Carter, Juan Manuel Garcı́a-Ruiz, P. Baglioni, A. F. C. Haldemann, Andrew Ball, A. Debus, Robert Lindner, Frédéric Haessig, David Monteiro, R. Trautner, Christoph Voland, Pierre Rebeyre, Duncan Goulty, F. Didot, Stephen Durrant, Eric Zekri, D. Koschny, Andrea De Toni, Gianfranco Visentin, Martin Zwick, M. van Winnendael, Martín Azkarate, Christophe Carreau, the ExoMars Project Team · 发表于：Astrobiology · 年份：2017 · DOI：10.1089/ast.2016.1533 · 被引用次数：500 · 研究领域：Planetary Science and Exploration、Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life、Astro and Planetary Science

The second ExoMars mission will be launched in 2020 to target an ancient location interpreted to have strong potential for past habitability and for preserving physical and chemical biosignatures (as well as abiotic/prebiotic organics). The mission will deliver a lander with instruments for atmospheric and geophysical investigations and a rover tasked with searching for signs of extinct life. The ExoMars rover will be equipped with a drill to collect material from outcrops and at depth down to 2 m. This subsurface sampling capability will provide the best chance yet to gain access to chemical biosignatures. Using the powerful Pasteur payload instruments, the ExoMars science team will conduct a holistic search for traces of life and seek corroborating geological context information. Key Words: Biosignatures—ExoMars—Landing sites—Mars rover—Search for life. Astrobiology 17, 471–510. Table of Contents 1. Article Organization 2. Introduction 2.1. ExoMars origin 2.2. A difficult adolescence 2.3. Joint program 3. Early Mars as an Exobiology Target 3.1. A first window of opportunity for life 3.2. Separate ways 3.2.1. Young Earth 3.2.2. Young Mars 3.2.3. Young Venus 3.3. Lessons for ExoMars: when and where? 4. Biosignatures: Which and How Reliable? 4.1. Morphological biosignatures 4.2. Chemical biosignatures 4.2.1. Isomerism selectivity 4.2.2. Molecular weight fingerprints 4.2.3. Bulk isotopic fractionation 4.3. Importance of geological context for boosting biosignature confidence 4....