Abstract
Addressing Strategic Knowledge Gaps in the Search for Biosignatures on Mars
Highlights
With the search for biosignatures, the exploration of Mars is shifting from the characterization of habitability to that of the coevolution of the planet, i.e., the spatiotemporal interactions life may have had with its environment
The intellectual framework underpinning the preparation of Mars 2020 and ExoMars along with future life-seeking missions is, essentially the same as the one that has guided the exploration of Mars for the past 15 years [1,2,3,4]
New paths of investigation must be developed to advance our understanding of plausible coevolution models on early Mars, and to support biosignature exploration
Summary
Biological processes on Mars would have taken place within the distinct context of an irreversible early collapse of the magnetosphere and atmosphere [e.g., 8], greater climate variability and gradients, and specific geographic, planetary and astronomical characteristics. These comprise the unique coevolutionary constraints that would have separated a Martian biosphere from that of Earth very early in its history. To evaluate their full effect on all possible biosignatures, these constraints should be envisioned within an intellectual framework that includes life as an interactive agent of transformation of its environment, and a piece of a dynamic system of polyextreme environmental conditions with complex loops and feedback mechanisms
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