Project description
Analysing radiation impacts on analogue Martian biosignatures
European and United States space agencies are pushing forward to uncover signs of past life on Mars, expecting to bring Martian samples to Earth within the decade. Since the Martian surface is so heavily radiated, studying how biosignatures break down under these conditions would greatly improve the ability to detect them. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Martian.Radiation project will analyse how radiation impacts biomolecular signatures produced by anoxygenic bacteria (as analogue biosignatures). To do so, it will subject living and dormant cells to a simulated Martian environment that replicates pressure, temperature, atmosphere composition and radiation. The project will then measure degradation rates with both high-resolution laboratory instruments and mission analogue instruments.
Objective
Unprecedented efforts from both the European and American space agencies are underway to find traces of ancient life on Mars (i.e. biosignatures). Two current NASA rover missions, an ESA/NASA rover mission launching in 2028, and the ambitious ESA/NASA Mars Sample Return effort that will bring Martian samples back to Earth in the next decade. However, the Martian surface is an extremely hostile environment, bathing in solar and cosmic radiation, so understanding how biosignatures degrade under radiation is crucial to increase our chances of detecting them on Mars. Here, I propose to study for the first time the radiation impact on biomolecules (serving here as analog biosignatures) from an anoxygenic microorganisms.
I will expose biosignatures, as well as living and dormant cultures to mimicked Martian surface conditions (pressure, temperature, atmosphere composition, radiation). To closely replicate the Martian radiation profile (coming both from the Sun and further cosmic sources), I will irradiate both with UV and ion radiation. This will provide complementary information on the chemistry of degradation and how it varies in different environments (living vs. dormant cells).
To measure the degradation rates and formation of byproducts, I will use both state-of-the-art laboratory instruments to have high-resolution data, as well as mission analog instruments currently present on Mars aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, to have a dataset directly applicable for the mission teams (for data analysis and interpretation).
This project will be the first study to investigate the impacts of UV and ion irradiation on biosignatures from anoxygenic microorganisms with both laboratory and mission instruments. Several billion dollars are being invested by the ESA and NASA on missions to Mars to find biosignatures, and this study will help maximize the scientific return of those investments with direct application to international mission decisions and future mission design.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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00136 ROMA
Italy
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