Project goals:
Goal 1: Early Mars aqueous environments
Exploit the ability of hydrated silica minerals to record water-rich settings to gain knowledge on Early Mars conditions
GOAL 2 : EARLY MARS HABITABILITY
Understand the ability hydrated silica minerals to record habitable environments and sequester organic carbon
GOAL 3: HYDRATED SILICA AS ASTROBIOLOGICAL TARGET
Are hydrated silica minerals good targets to find biosignatures at Mars, which form should current/future missions target ?
Work packages
Mars hydrated silica
REMOTE SENSING of MARS HySI SITES
Compositional sensing, geomorphological mapping
SUPPORTING MARS OBSERVATIONS in the lab
Near infrared spectroscopic measurements on relevant HySi analogues: spectra and optical constants for abundance retreivals at Mars
Expected outcomes
Identify new Mars HySi sites of interest
Conduct in-depth investigations on short list
Provide reliable mineral abundance estimates
Terrestrial hydrated silica
STUDY HYSI ANALOGUE SITES ON EARTH
Identify and study new relevant Mars analogue sites for HySi precipitation here on Earth
COLLECT SAMPLES
From naturally occuring HySi, with and without organic matter in them
Expected outcomes
At the macro scale: better understanding of geologic and geochemical conditions for Mars HySi precipitation
At the micro scale: samples for study in the lab, for their mineralogy, host/co-occuring phases, and organic content
Hydrated silica in the lab
REPRODUCE HYSI PRECIPITATION CONDITIONS
Derive protocole to precipitate HySi forms that have a composition and micro texture relevant to Mars and natural terrestrial HySi
EXPERIMENTAL HYSI-ORGANIC MATTER INTERACTIONS
Incorporate organic matter into HySi phases through different mechanisms relevant to natural environments, life-bearing or not
Expected outcomes
Understand the geochemical conditions for HySi precipitation at Mars
Understand the mechanisms by which organic matter interacts with HySi
Understand the co-evolution of HySi and organic matter when they are made to interact
Understand the protecting effect of HySi on organic matter undergoing maturation
All three approaches provide angles to the overarching goals of this project:
Knowledge from terrestrial sites/samples helps refine our experimental protocols
Knowledge of Mars HySi sites helps selecting the most relevant sampling sites on Earth and compounds to experiment on in the lab
In turn, knowledge from analogue field sites and experiments on HySi and organic matter helps better interpret what Mars HySi sites can tell us about the early water-bearing environments there.
They also will help us pinpoint which sites should be explored in priority for their potential to host organic matter of astrobiological relevance
Projet financé par l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche, édition 2020, ANR-20-CE49-0013-01
Contact: john.carter@lam.fr