Summary and Reader Response Draft 01 of The ExoMars Drill Unit

The ExoMars drill unit was devised to extract core soil specimens up to a depth of two metres in an array of soil samples on Mars and transfer them to the "inlet port" of the "Rover Payload Module" (European Space Agency, 2019a). European Space Agency (2019b) states that biomarkers and fossil groups found either subterraneous or within rock surfaces have the highest possibility of finding identifiers of early life on Mars. In response to the claim from the European Space Agency (2019b), I believe the ExoMars drill unit is sufficient. 

Based on the report by Magnani et al. (2010), the drill unit contains three extension rods and a drill tool to acquire specimens for examination, and the drill components are housed in a box. The report mentions an additional feature, the positioner, which raises the box from a horizontal storage position to an upright position for drilling, and to a tilted position to unload the specimens into the sample receptacle (p.223, para. 2).

Vago et al. (2017) denote the drill being fashioned with the specimen retrieval tool which includes a "shutter, movable piston", and temperature detectors. Close to the tip of the drill, thermocouples are placed to track temperature deviations in the sample receptacle. The extension rods contain optical and electrical connections for sending of Ma_MISS (“Mars Multispectral Imager for Subsurface Studies”) signals to the spectrometer in the upper portion of the drill unit (p. 492, para. 7). Ma_MISS infrared spectrometer offers the potential to research soil stratigraphy and geochemistry in situ. The spectrometer is important as the preservation of deep specimens may be altered after removal from their cold, subterranean conditions. The examination of unexposed matter by Ma_MISS and other information gathered with spectrometers situated inside the rover will be critical for the unambiguous representation of rock formation conditions (p. 492, para. 6). These features and functions are paramount to the preservation of the sample's natural and unpredictable content, especially from radiation damage, ensuring pristine biomarkers for the examination for the presence of life. 

The article by Vago et al. (2017), page 480, under the subtopic heading: Chemical biosignature, describes that majority of Earth’s biological material exists in the “form of carbonaceous macromolecules stored within layered sedimentary rocks”, and the presence of that are found to be more abundant in living organisms. Lipids and other structural biopolymers are the building blocks of biological systems and have been recognized to be “stable for billions of years” when underground, while primary biomolecules such as carbohydrates and proteins, decompose rapidly once microorganisms perish. Therefore, the preservation of biomarkers collected from beneath the surface is vital to provide the highest probability for the existence of life on Mars.

The article written by Korablev et al. (2017) states that trace gases such as methane and ethane, in the Martian atmosphere, are regarded as probable indicators for early or current biological or geological movement. Elevated levels of trace gases could be a result of organic presence or concentrated plumes which are large quantities of trace gases rising into the air in a column.

In conclusion, the ExoMars rover is sufficient for the search for life on other planets, Mars included. The drill and sample acquisition ability present the best opportunity to obtain access to well-preserved biomarkers. However, the verification of a compilation of possible biosignature discoveries may need more meticulous analyses, one our present technology is not capable of. (Vago et al., 2017, p. 499-500). Given that biomarkers underground present the best way of detecting the presence of life on Mars, technology today is not advanced enough to determine the precedence of sample collection to prove the existence.

 

 

 

References

European Space Agency. (2019a, September 1). The ExoMars drill unit. ESA.

https://exploration.esa.int/web/mars/-/43611-rover-drill

European Space Agency. (2019b, September 1). Searching for signs of life on Mars. ESA. 
https://exploration.esa.int/web/mars/-/43608-life-on-mars

 

Magnani, P., Re, E., Senese, S., Rizzi, F., Gily, A., & Baglioni, P. (2010, September). The Drill and Sampling System for the ExoMars Rover. 
http://robotics.estec.esa.int/i-SAIRAS/isairas2010/PAPERS/044-2769-p.pdf

 

Vago, J. L., Westall, F., Pasteur Instrument Teams, Landing S, Coates, A. J., Jaumann, R., Korablev, O., Ciarletti, V., Mitrofanov, I., Josset, J. L., de Sanctis, M. C., Bibring, J. P., Rull, F., Goesmann, F., Steininger, H., Goetz, W., Brinckerhoff, W., Szopa, C., Raulin, F., Westall, F., . . . The ExoMars Project Team. (2017). Habitability on Early Mars and the Search for Biosignatures with the ExoMars Rover. Astrobiology, 17(6–7), 471–510. 
https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2016.1533

Korablev, O., Montmessin, F., Trokhimovskiy, A., Fedorova, A. A., Shakun, A. V., Grigoriev, A. V., Moshkin, B. E., Ignatiev, N. I., Forget, F., Lefèvre, F., Anufreychik, K., Dzuban, I., Ivanov, Y. S., Kalinnikov, Y. K., Kozlova, T. O., Kungurov, A., Makarov, V., Martynovich, F., Maslov, I., . . . Zorzano, M. P. (2017). The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) of Three Spectrometers for the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter. Space Sci Rev, 214(7), 1–62.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-017-0437-6