Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP)

ASTEP Projects

2008 ASTEP field expeditions

ENDURANCE, the Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic ANtarctic Explorer, developed by Principal Investigator Peter Doran of the University of Illinois-Chicago in collaboration with Stone Aerospace and other collaborators. A modified version of the DEPTHX vehicle (see below), ENDURANCE is an underwater robotic probe designed to explore the biological and geochemical composition of an ice-bound Antarctic lake. This project is intended to demonstrate a concept that may prove useful in the search for life on other planetary bodies where ice is known to exist. In February 2008, as a prelude to full-blown field operations in Antarctica, Doran’s team will conduct a field demonstration of ENDURANCE in an ice-covered lake in Madison, Wisconsin. During the 2008-2009 field research season in Antarctica, ENDURANCE will map the continent’s West Lake Bonney, a two-and-a-half mile long, one-mile wide, 130 foot-deep lake located in the continent’s Dry Valleys. The lake is perpetually covered with 12 to 15 feet of ice.

The 2008 Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition will mark the third of three years of ASTEP-funded field work for this project, led by Principal Investigator Andrew Steele of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. AMASE involves a multinational team of researchers from NASA and other U.S. and European institutions. The aim of AMASE expeditions to collect scientific data and demonstrate planetary exploration technologies in a terrestrial environment analogous to areas of Mars that are of interest to astrobiologists.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute’s Environmental Sample Processor program will continue underwater testing of a deep-sea version of the ESP developed for the ASTEP program. The ESP is an underwater robotic microbial sampling system. The deep-sea environmental sample processor (D-ESP) supported by ASTEP is an instrument package designed for autonomously sampling and detecting microbes found in Earth’s deep-sea seep and hydrothermal vent fluids. The aim of this ASTEP project, led by Principal Investigator Christopher Scholin of MBARI, is to demonstrate the sort of technology that might be used to sample the ice-covered liquid-water oceans believed to exist on Jupiter’s moon Europa. The ESP collects subsurface water samples and uses an automated molecular probe to identify microorganisms and their gene products in the samples. The D-ESP is designed to evaluate the diversity and abundance of thermophilic (heat-loving) and methanotrophic (methane-processing) microorganisms present in deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

2007 ASTEP field expeditions

The Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer is an autonomous underwater robotic vehicle developed by Stone Aerospace in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s Field Robotics Center; the University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences; the Colorado School of Mines Environmental Science and Engineering Program, Golden; the University of Arizona, Tucson; and the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas. DEPTHX completed a course of technology demonstrations and scientific investigations during a series of dives in a system of deep sinkholes, or cenotes, in Mexico. The ASTEP program funded the DEPTHX project to explore concepts that might be employed on a future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, which is believed to have an ice-covered liquid water ocean. (For more information, see NASA Headquarters press release, May 31, 2007, “NASA robot completes test drive of exploration capabilities.”)

The Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE), led by ASTEP Principal Investigator Robert Reves-Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), employed two autonomous underwater robots, called Jaguar and Puma, developed for the ASTEP program to demonstrate autonomous robotic operations in deep-sea vent environments. Jaguar and Puma were designed to locate hydrothermal vent sites on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean and search for life there. The AGAVE research team included scientists and engineers from the United States, Norway, Germany, Japan, and Sweden in addition to the United States. This expedition was also supported by the National Science Foundation. (For more information, see WHOI’s “Dive and Discover” Web site.)

The 2007 Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) (see above) involved a multinational team of researchers from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and other U.S. and European institutions. Hans Amundsen of the University of Oslo, Norway, served as expedition leader. The aim of the 2007 expedition was to collect scientific data and demonstrate planetary exploration technologies in a terrestrial environment analogous to areas of Mars that are of interest to astrobiologists.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute’s Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) program has developed a special deep-sea version of the ESP for the ASTEP program. The ESP is an underwater robotic microbial sampling system. The deep-sea environmental sample processor (D-ESP) supported by ASTEP is an instrument package designed for autonomously sampling and detecting microbes found in Earth’s deep-sea seep and hydrothermal vent fluids. The aim of this ASTEP project is to demonstrate the sort of technology that might be used to sample the ice-covered liquid-water oceans believed to exist on Jupiter’s moon Europa. The ESP collects subsurface water samples and uses an automated molecular probe to identify microorganisms and their gene products in the samples. The D-ESP is designed to evaluate the diversity and abundance of thermophilic (heat-loving) and methanotrophic (methane-processing) microorganisms present in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Led by ASTEP Principal Investigator Christopher Scholin, D-ESP underwater operations took place throughout 2007.