Identifying past life and habitable environments on Mars

我的研究将从两个角度探讨火星上的生命问题：第一个是检查地球上类似于火星含水沉积岩的前寒武纪河流和湖泊沉积物——这将帮助我们了解火星岩石记录中如何记录可居住环境；二是在火星表面寻找这些和类似的迹象，以构建火星早期（约40亿年前）历史环境条件时空演变的图景。我将在这两种方法中使用的方法将针对岩石记录的沉积和地层分析；在地球上，这将包括实地研究和光学显微镜，在火星上，我将使用带有重叠轨道光谱图像的数字地形模型。我还将使用拉曼激光光谱学来帮助了解微生物化石是如何保存在这些古老的陆地沉积物中的，从而帮助我们在火星漫游任务中如何寻找它们。

My research will approach the question of life on Mars from two angles: the first is to examine Precambrian fluvial and lacustrine sediments on Earth that are analogous to Martian aqueous sedimentary rocks - this will help us to understand how habitable environments may be recorded in the Martian rock record; the second is to look for these and similar signs on Mars' surface to construct a picture of the spatial and temporal evolution of Mars' environmental conditions in its early (c. 4 billion years ago) history. The methods I will use in these two approaches will be aimed at sedimentary and stratigraphic analysis of the rock record; on Earth this will involve field study and optical microscopy, on Mars I will use digital terrain models with overlain orbital spectral imagery. I will also use Raman laser spectroscopy to help understand how microbial fossils are preserved in these ancient terrestrial sediments, and thus how we might search for them during rover missions on Mars.