Chemical Guidance in the Search for Past and Extant Life on Mars

Steven Benner,Elisa Biondi,Hyo-Joong Kim,Jan Špaček

doi:10.3847/25c2cfeb.266df7e7

Abstract

NASA should design missions to Mars for the purpose of generating Aha! discoveries to jolt scientists contemplating the molecular origins of life. These missions should be designed with an understanding of the privileged chemistry that likely created RNA prebiotically on Earth, and universal chemical principles that constrain the structure of Darwinian molecules generally.

Highlights

Research to understand the origin of life is central to the NASA mission, and has been recognized as such for a half century
Laboratory research for how life originated in the Solar System lacks strong constraints concerning the relevant environments at the relevant times on the relevant planet
If that planet is Earth, the oldest physical records come as zircons ~4.35 billion years old

Summary

Introduction

Research to understand the origin of life is central to the NASA mission, and has been recognized as such for a half century. These may entrap elements (e.g. Ce3+/ Ce4+) that indicate the redox states of fluids that they crystallized from,[2] trace elements (e.g. boron) that are proposed to constrain maturation of carbohydrates possibly relevant to RNA-first models for the origin of life,[3] and carbon, whose 12C/13C ratio might provide hints of a biosphere.[4] Most of the rest of the physical record on earth before 4+ Ga has been destroyed by plate tectonics.

Results

Conclusion