The Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) Project

Overview

Journal Astrobiology

Specialty Biology

Date 2023 Dec 6

PMID 38054949

Authors

B Glass

D Bergman

V Parro

L Kobayashi

C Stoker

R Quinn

A Davila

P Willis

W Brinckerhoff

K Warren-Rhodes

M B Wilhelm

L Caceres

J DiRuggiero

K Zacny

M Moreno-Paz

A Dave

S Seitz

A Grubisic

M Castillo

R Bonaccorsi

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

With advances in commercial space launch capabilities and reduced costs to orbit, humans may arrive on Mars within a decade. Both to preserve any signs of past (and extant) martian life and to protect the health of human crews (and Earth's biosphere), it will be necessary to assess the risk of cross-contamination on the surface, in blown dust, and into the near-subsurface (where exploration and resource-harvesting can be reasonably anticipated). Thus, evaluating for the presence of life and biosignatures may become a critical-path Mars exploration precursor in the not-so-far future, circa 2030. This Special Collection of papers from the Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) project describes many of the scientific, technological, and operational issues associated with searching for and identifying biosignatures in an extreme hyperarid region in Chile's Atacama Desert, a well-studied terrestrial Mars analog environment. This paper provides an overview of the ARADS project and discusses in context the five other papers in the ARADS Special Collection, as well as prior ARADS project results.

Citing Articles

A Mission Simulating the Search for Life on Mars with Automated Drilling, Sample Handling, and Life Detection Instruments Performed in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert, Chile.

Stoker C, Glass B, Stucky T, Dave A, Kobayashi L, Quinn R Astrobiology. 2023; 23(12):1284-1302.

PMID: 37856168 PMC: 10750310. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2022.0055.

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