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PHOENIX
Short Title: PHOENIX Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=432 We propose an international, scientifically and technologically interdisciplinary investigation the Antarctic Dry Valleys, to understand the signature of climate variability as written into the soils and to quantify the abundance of life's building blocks there and at the ice-soil boundary. Our field campaign provides a thorough examination of the Dry Valley's physical and chemical nature, using an integrated analysis of multiple data sets. Since the Antarctic dry valleys are among the coldest, driest places on Earth, they are an end-member environment that can be used for comparison to less harsh regions on Earth and more extreme environments on other planets. To that end, we leverage the mission return of the currently funded NASA Phoenix Mars mission, which will land between 65-72?N during the International Polar Year, by providing a direct comparison of the two analogous regions. The proposed project also highly complements Phoenix, as it will enhance the validation of two instruments, thereby strengthening the Phoenix data interpretation and perhaps allowing for an increased understanding of the different evolutionary paths of these two planets. The northern polar region of Mars has many similarities to the several analog regions on the Earth, especially the Antarctic Dry Valleys. The Mars polar region is known to have a substantial amount of water-ice within the top meter of the surface (e.g., Boynton et al., 2002) with a dry overburden of a fraction of a meter thick. In addition, the atmospheric water content on Mars is extremely small only 100 pr microns at it's annual peak. Furthermore, it is thought that the north polar regions undergo climatic changes over an obliquity cycle that could melt this ice reservoir (Jakosky et al., 2003), making this region one of the most likely places on Mars to sustain life should it ever have developed. Because of the interest in tracking life forms to the most extreme environments, the knowledge gained from examining atmospheric, chemical, and mineralogical processes in this pristine region of Mars will be highly complementary in understanding similar regions on the Earth. Two of the engineering model instruments that were built to fly aboard the Phoenix spacecraft, the wet chemistry laboratory and the thermal and electrical conductivity probe, will be used in the field in Antarctica. Samples will also be collected and analyzed in Phoenix analog optical and atomic-force microscopy stations, as well as an analog thermal analyzer and gas analysis instrument. Boynton, W, W. Feldman, I. Mitrofanov, et al., 2002. Distribution of hydrogen in the near surface of Mars: Evidence for subsurface ice deposits, Science, 297(5578): 81-85. Jakosky, B., K. Nealson, C. Bakermans, R. Ley, M. Mellon, 2003. Subfreezing activity of microorganisms and the potential habitability of Mars polar regions, Astrobio. 3(2): 343-350.