Upcoming projects!

We're excited to report that ISU Geosciences will be leading the volcanology science team for BASALT (Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains), a large, multi-institutional project led by NASA and funded by the PSTAR program. We will be working on the lavas of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (just up the road in Idaho) and Hawaii for the next 4 years, studying how heterogeneities in rock influence microbial habitat and how to actually carry out similar research on Mars.

Martian landscape, as seen by Pathfinder. Fortunately, we get a few more trees in Idaho. Image from http://mars.nasa.gov/MPF/index1.html

In the long-term, this project will support the search for extraterrestrial life. Before we spend large amounts of time and money searching for various forms of life on Mars, we need to do what we can on Earth to understand what we're looking for and where to look. Our two field sites are rough analogues for different periods in Martian history, with Idaho representing modern Mars and Hawaii standing in for a wetter past. We've already seen enough of Mars to know that we're not looking for the little green Martians from classic science fiction or anything else on that size/scale. Instead, we're interested in very tiny life forms, such as microbes. These little guys are much harder to find than our cinematic aliens, so we need to figure out where to look for them and how to go about it in a low-cost, low-stakes situation here on Earth before we start hunting them on Mars. While ISU researchers guide science work on the lava flows, engineers and astronauts will be working side-by-side with us to figure out how to turn our fieldwork into reasonable tasks off-planet. For my part, I'm super excited at the idea of having rovers carry heavy field gear for me as they practice navigating uneven terrain on the lava flows.

If there are aliens like these on Mars, then they're creepily good at hide-and-seek. We're working on the science and exploration plans that will help us to find evidence of microbes, either dead or alive. Image from http://pixar.wikia.com/Aliens

This project will support graduate and undergraduate students at ISU over the next 4 years, as well as bring researchers from all over the US to SE Idaho. We get to do good science, train the next generation of scientists, and get a small economic boost in our area -- this is 100% win!

The project officially kicks off this summer. We'll try to post updates throughout the project, including photos of us working in the field. (Hint: the engineers will probably look pretty normal, but the geologists will look like we've been living off the land, hiding in the lava tubes, for a little too long. It's how we roll.)