Planetary Caves as Astrobiology Targets
Abstract
Humans have looked for extraterrestrial biosignatures on the surfaces of other planets and moons. These surfaces are often exposed to conditions and processes that exceed the physical limits of life, e.g., intense cosmic radiation, impact events, and large thermal extremes, that would render difficult the preservation of biosignatures over geologic time. Planetary caves provide protection from cosmic radiation, small-scale impact events, and have relatively stable thermal environments. These characteristics may well permit preservation of biosignatures over long periods of time and make them a prospective astrobiology target for biosignatures beyond Earth. A cave with natural openings offers direct access to the subsurface without drilling and deeper penetration into subsurface materials than could be obtained from a rover, landed platform, or penetrator launched from orbit. However, current technological and mechanical limitations associated with ingress and navigation make their exploration challenging. Caves form through a number of processes, but those on the moon and Mars identified using satellite data are lava caves. On Earth, lava caves are associated with basaltic lava, a material predicted to be ubiquitous on all rocky planets. On the moon and Mars, hundreds of vertical collapse pits have been identified using remote sensing approaches, and many of these may be skylights providing direct access to intact caves that should be substantially larger than those found on Earth due to the combination of lower gravity and higher eruption rates on these smaller planetary bodies. Machine learning algorithms applied to Mars orbital data are identifying numerous new putative cave access points to the Martian underground. This presentation will address current and on-going technology developments that could advance planetary cave identification, access, and exploration for future planetary astrobiology missions to Mars and beyond.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.P21H3428B
- Keywords:
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- 0456 Life in extreme environments;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0758 Remote sensing;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 6225 Mars;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS