Raman Biosignatures for Astrobiology Missions

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Mickael Baqué
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy ; Biophysics ; Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology ; Physical Chemistry of Molecules, Liquids and Interfaces, Biophysical Chemistry
• Term: from 2019 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426601242

Mars and the Jovian and Saturnian moons (Europa and Enceladus) are the next targets to search for life in our Solar System. New life detection instruments are indeed ready to be sent to Mars in 2020 (onboard ESA/Roscomos’s ExoMars2020 and NASA’s Mars2020 rovers) and possibly further. Among them, spectroscopy methods such as Raman or infrared are promising techniques that can give insights on both the mineralogical context and the identification of biosignatures. However, to support and interpret spectroscopic data correctly, as well as to guide future life detection missions, a better understanding of possible habitable environments and potentially detectable biosignatures is of paramount importance. Extensive field and laboratory investigations focused in the last years on demonstrating the capabilities of such technologies to characterize both mineral and biological samples of relevance to Mars but very few assessed potential biosignatures degradation under Mars-like or space-like conditions. The objectives of the proposed project are thus: to expend our knowledge of the potential biosignatures of extremophilic organisms from Mars-like and icy moon-like environments detectable by Raman spectroscopy methods and to assess the detectability of their remains in the context of planetary environments. We will, for that, have access to biological samples from diverse terrestrial analogue field sites such as lava tubes, the Atacama Desert, Antarctica and others. And to samples which were, and will be, exposed to real space and simulated conditions approaching the planetary conditions of Mars and the icy moons via the ESA projects BIOMEX and BIOSIGN, led by the Institute of Planetary Research of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin. In addition, we will, for the first time, be able to analyze the influence of space-like or Mars-like environmental conditions on the obtained Raman-spectra during the measurements thanks to world-unique chambers present at DLR and partner institutions in two Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) teams in Orléans (France). These setups will allow us to assess selected biosignatures preservation potential during, for instance, high UV or energetic particle irradiation. The proposed project will therefore take advantage of existing infrastructures, samples, collaborations and instrumentation available internally at DLR, at the CNRS Orléans and through the different ongoing projects and experiments, in order to select and characterize a large class of potential organisms and biosignatures with different Raman instruments. Based on these capacities, my proposed study is entirely novel, extremely timely and of utmost importance for the upcoming robotic missions to Mars.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Cooperation Partners: Dr.-Ing. Aurélien Canizarès; Dr.-Ing. Frédéric Foucher; Dr. Thomas Georgelin; Dr. Patrick Simon; Dr. Frances Westall