1. Why was Jezero Crater selected as the Mars2020 landing site?

On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within
lake basins. Examination of spectral data acquired from orbit show that some of these sediments
have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments
contain clays and carbonates.

(https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jezero-crater-mars-2020s-landing-site)
2. What significance did the Phoenix Lander have on the Viking Lander(s) results?
Favorable chemistry and episodes with thin films of liquid water during ongoing, long-term climate
cycles may sometimes make the area where NASA's Phoenix Mars mission landed last year a
favorable environment for microbes.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix/release.php?ArticleID=2210
3. Which instruments or methods would chose for an ideal life-detection suite for Mars and
which place on Mars would you want to land? (given no limitation in funding, landing sites, or
data rate back to Earth).

 IR Spectroscopy, Elysium Planitia was selected not for its surface features, but for safety
considerations. InSight's purpose is to study the interior of Mars, not the surface.(IR
spectroscopy is made for determination , cualitative for organic compuonds.)
 The application of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has tremendous value for the
field of geobiology, representing a powerful tool for identifying the specific role of micro‐
organisms in biogeochemical cycles. Jezero Crater. The landing site in Jezero Crater offers
geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that
could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1472-4669.2009.00201.x
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-announces-landing-site-for-mars-2020-rover

4. What are the known survival limits for halophiles?

multiple extremes of high salinity, alkaline pH, and elevated temperature.
5. Name one way meteorites influence the field of astrobiology?
Meteorites may be able to ‘trap’ evidence of extraterrestrial life, we could be able to show that the
chemical composition of rocks influences how microbial communities develop by studying bacteria
and Archaea in meteorites.
http://www.sci-news.com/space/martian-life-meteorites-05060.html
6. Is a microbial spore alive?
7. What is the difference in habitability investigations and life detection investigations?

Habitabulity:
Our concept is based on the only example of habitable planet we have.
Generalization of life on Earth: liquid wáter and chemical carbon.
Comparative planetology: allows understand the characteristics that make habitable to Earth.
oma.nucleares.unam.mx/home/images/ema/memoria/Segura_ExoplanetasDeteccionVida-
EMA2013.pdf
Life Detection:
The NASA definition of life, “Life is a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian
evolution” and considered the specific features of the one life we know —Terran life,
Life detection investigations have limits, characteristics of the one example:
It is chemical in essence; terran living systems contain molecular species that undergo chemical
transformations (metabolism) under the direction of molecules (enzyme catalysts) whose structures
are inherited, and heritable information is itself carried by molecules.
To have directed chemical transformations, terran living systems exploit a thermodynamic
disequilibrium.
The biomolecules that terran life uses to support metabolism, build structures, manage energy, and
transfer information take advantage of the covalent bonding properties of carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur and the ability of heteroatoms, primarily oxygen and
nitrogen, to modulate the reactivity of hydrocarbons.
Terran biomolecules interact with water to be soluble (or not) or to react (or not) in a way that
confers fitness on a host organism. The biomolecules found in terran life appear to have molecular
structures that create properties specifically suited to the demands imposed by water.
Living systems that have emerged on Earth have done so by a process of random variation in the
structure of inherited biomolecules, on which was superimposed natural selection to achieve fitness.
These are the central elements of the Darwinian paradigm..
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/research/life-detection/about/
__________________________________________________________________
Life detection encompasses all measurements seeking to find life, including searching for
biosignatures and establishing context. Biosignature measurements directly seek features
characteristic of life (such as complex organic matter not known to be formed through only
chemical reactions, or concentrations of biologically necessary or useful elements) as evidence of
ongoing or past biological processes. Establishing context encompasses the measurements seeking
to determine the properties and processes (such as habitability or competing abiotic mechanisms)
inherent both to the environment investigated and to the environments through which the sample
provenance can be traced.
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/research/life-detection/about/

8. Provide an example of each and describe the difference between extant and extinct life?
Extinct refers to a species that is no longer alive. The point of extinction is typically considered to
be the moment the last individual dies
9. How many planets / planetary bodies are known to harbor life?
4104-Exoplanets
3047-Planetary systems
Voyager 1 and 2
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/beyond/overview/
10. Has life been found on Mars?
No ,Investigators have found some organic molecules. While commonly associated with life,
organic molecules also can be created by non-biological processes and are not necessarily indicators
of life.
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8347/nasa-finds-ancient-organic-material-mysterious-methane-on-mars/

Tonantzin Anahí Gutierrez Gómez