Raman Spectral Signatures in the Biogeological Record: An Astrobiological Challenge

Abstract

The application of Raman spectroscopic techniques to the characterisation of the protective biochemicals and their geological niche matrices used in the survival strategies of extremophilic organisms in terrestrially stressed environments (Wynn-Williams and Edwards, 2000a, b), coupled with the palaeogeological recognition that early Mars and Earth had maintained similar environments under which Archaean cyanobacteria could have developed3, has driven the acceptance of the proposal for the adoption of Raman spectroscopy as novel analytical instrumentation for planetary exploration (Edwards and Newton, 1999; Ellery and Wynn-Williams, 2003; Dickensheets et al., 2000). The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that a miniaturised Raman spectrometer would form part of the Pasteur analytical life-detection protocol in the ExoMars-C mission for the search for traces of life on Mars in the Aurora programme to be launched as a joint two-rover mission with NASA in 2018. The Raman spectrometer will provide a key role in the first-pass analytical interrogation of powdered rock specimens from the Martian surface and subsurface aboard the ESA ExoMars-C rover vehicle.