Speaker
Description
In 2021 the ExoMars Science Team selected a suite of terrestrial analogue materials to become ‘Mission Reference Samples', chosen for their Oxia Planum landing site representativity and their relevance regarding biosignature preservation. The science team undertook a campaign to analyse these samples with each ground model of the rover's Pasteur Payload Instruments.
Results have enabled application of the ExoMars Biosignature Score (EBS)[1], a metric to evaluate the degree of confidence that a location may contain sufficient evidence of past (or present) martian life. The EBS interrogates the geological context and the presence of morphological and chemical biosignatures.
The team used the same method and scoring system that it expects to employ during the rover's surface mission. We find that although several analysed samples originated from active microbial environments, EBS values are yet to exceed 100, the threshold for strong evidence of life as supported by multiple, independent enquiry avenues.
In this poster I will provide an overview of the campaign, present results and evaluations of the EBS for the first samples, and discuss overall findings and lessons learned that shall be considered in preparation for science operations.
[1] Vago J.L. et al., Astrobiology, 2017, 17, 472-510.