Life on Mars: A Curious Investigation

Since it landed on Mars in 2012, the Curiosity Rover has been exploring the Gale Crater in one of the most ambitious space missions to date. The Royal Astronomical Society recently held a meeting to share and discuss some of the initial findings.

The meeting started with Dr Paul Mahaffey from the Jet Propulsion laboratory at Caltech, who introduced all of the gizmos and gadgets which are on board the Curiosity Rover and reported on how well they are working. One of the key components of Curiosity is an onboard camera, which allows the rover to monitor its surroundings. In this way the surface features and processes can be observed and, to some extent, the surface geology can be mapped remotely. Using this camera, Curiosity can even take pictures of itself (to check for damage, not for its Facebook page!).

The Gale Crater was carefully selected as the landing site for Curiosity as it is an interesting area – not only from a rock-loving perspective, but also because of the planetary processes which can be studied through examination of the impact crater. Through detailed chemical investigation of the air and rocks, Curiosity will be able to investigate a range of planetary processes, from those occuring in the outermost atmosphere, to those taking place in the interior of Mars.

Several talks were given revealing the detail in which the volcanic and sedimentary rocks can be mapped. The methods of mapping include taking measurements of the surface and photographing the outcrops, in which sedimentary layers – and even individual pebbles – can be identified. These images and measurements reveal information about processes such as erosion which may have occurred on the planet. It is interesting to see how the interaction between the rocks and their surroundings can be compared to similar processes occurring on Earth.

The search for life on Mars was addressed by Dr Frances Westall, who explained that the Curiosity Rover was looking for evidence for the presence of water and other organic compounds which may suggest conditions conducive to life. The different possible forms of life, the timescales over which they may be sustained and the environments in which they could exist are all factors being considered in the hunt for potential life.