International Summer School in Astrobiology!

2020 International Summer School in Astrobiology: Searching for Life on Mars: Techniques and Challenges

2020 is the year when two Mars spacecraft, one from the USA and the other from Europe, will launch towards Mars. Both are expected to significantly advance our search for life on Mars. The NASA Mars 2020 Rover is the first step of Mars Sample Return (MSR). Based on the Mars Curiosity design, Mars 2020 carries a Deep UV Raman mapping spectrometer, named SHERLOC, that will be able to detect organic molecules in spatial context. In addition, samples will be collected and cached for future return to Earth where they can be analyzed in our laboratories. ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover carries a drill that can collect samples from depths of up to 2 m for onboard analysis. The retrieved samples will be analyzed using a Raman spectrometer (the RLS instrument) as well as analysis using a coupled Gas Chromatograph- Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) of desorbed materials using the MOMA instrument. Although their results alone cannot prove that biosignatures are present, they will be able to identify carbon-containing compounds and the types of molecular frameworks and functional groups that are present.

The 2020 summer school will review and assess the types of techniques that are necessary for detection of biosignatures on Mars, including Raman spectroscopy, the isotopic and chirality analyses that the ESA and MSL rovers will perform, and the techniques that can analyze samples both in-situ and also on Earth-based laboratories for follow-up analysis. The central question will be “how can we unequivocally detect biosignatures on Mars?” and the discussions will involve in-situ rovers, optimal sample collecting and return, laboratory analyses with returned samples here on Earth, follow-on robotic exploration, and the experiments that future human explorers may be able to perform. The lectures will be focused on instrumentation and techniques. In addition to the lectures, during the week the students will participate in discussions about the theme, participate in group projects, and take part in an excursion to a local and relevant geological site near Santander.

The school is primarily aimed at graduate students in science or engineering, but is open to anyone interested in the origin of life and astrobiology.
Applicants must be students affiliated with US institutions. The application deadline is March 16, 2020, and selections will be made by April 15, 2020.

The participation of students from ESA Member States, Canada and Slovenia can be funded by the European Space Agency (ESA). Furthermore, students enrolled in Universities from the European Union (as well as from other countries belonging to the European Higher Education Area, EHEA: http://www.ehea.info/page-members) could also be directly funded by the UIMP (Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo). Interested students please contact J. Miguel Mas-Hesse (mm@cab.inta-csic.es) for further details. The application deadline is TBD.