Dr. Nathalie Cabrol Curriculum Vitae: 
Planetary scientist Nathalie Cabrol would like to go to Mars, but until such time as she can book a seat to that intriguing world she’s more than making do by going to a place that’s ten thousand times closer. The high lakes on top of the Andean mountains expose life to cold, dry climates and an abundance of ultraviolet radiation – all characteristic of living conditions on Mars (and, one presumes, on many other planets as well). Combining exploration with the observing skills of a scientist, Nathalie investigates the life in these unusual lakes by diving in – literally. The biology she studies here have made adaptations that martian life – if it exists – will also have made. The volcanic peaks of the Andes are Nathalie’s Petri dish for experimenting with “alien” life. While she’s not yet been to the real Mars, Nathalie and her scientist husband, Edmond Grin, were the principal supporters of the decision to send the Spirit rover to Gusev crater, in Mars’ pockmarked, southern highlands. This was because the crater gives the appearance of being the bed of an ancient lake, making it a prime target for understanding the hydraulic history of the Red Planet. Adopt a Scientist OpportunityYou can join Nathalie in the Bolivian Andes and see the still poorly known life that ekes out a living in lakes nestled at the summit of towering, altiplano volcanoes. With the High Lakes Project team, you will be among the very few who can investigate these analogs to the environment of the early Earth and Mars. You’ll fly to Antofagasta, Chile, and spend some days investigating the remarkable attractions of the Atacama desert, a renown Mars analog that NASA routinely uses for robotic mission simulations. You will eventually head for the team’s “Archaean Park” at the base of towering Licancabur. Depending on your level of interest and skill at mountaineering, there are three itineraries open to you. (1) Discovery: No mountaineering experience? Not a problem. Spend a week as Nathalie and the team walk you through sites at Laguna Blanca and Verde, lakes that are similar to Mars and the early Earth. You’ll also be able to take breaks in the warm spring basin of Termales. (2) Exploration: Not afraid of mountains, but only have limited time? Join the team for one ascent, for example to Licancabur: steep and high (19,000 feet), but non-technical. You’ll reach the highest volcanic lake on Earth and can study its unique ecosystem. Minimum recommended time: three weeks. (3) Expedition: An unrivaled experience as you travel, live, work, and ascend to both Licancabur and Aguas Calientes. You’ll document and record unique ecosystems for the generations that follow, leaving a significant legacy about Earth’s biosphere. Minimum recommended time: four to five weeks.
Projects
Exploration of Planets Past, Present, and Future Habitability
NNX09AE80A
With this task, we pursue our research in sedimentology related to the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission (mission data and terrestrial analogs), which has now entered its third extended mission and the interpretation of orbital imagery focusing on the basin deposits of the martian highlands. Our objective is to characterize and map potential life habitats from the ground and orbit. The current missions show that Mars was habitable in the past and possibly still habitable today in specific environments (e.g., the discovery of ice, salts, and potential nutrients at the Phoenix landing site, and orbiters observation of abundant subsurface ice and geologically recent volcanic activity that could have provided water and energy). There is, therefore, a possibility that life, if it ever appeared on Mars, might have survived the climatic transition of the Noachian/Hesperian period, 3.7-3.2 Gy ago up to the present, and could still be sheltered from hostile environmental surface conditions. In that perspective,the identification and characterization of underground habitats is becoming a priority in the search for life on Mars. As a result, within that task - and in addition to the tasks related to our participation to the MER team - we are now initiating a sub-task which objective will be the geological and morphological characterization of regions on Mars where caves could have formed and are possibly sheltering microbial life. The interest of caves is not only astrobiological. Human exploring planets will require shelters against hostile planetary environments as well as habitats. The idea that caves could be used as a foundation for human habitats on the Moon and Mars is being seriously considered by NASA. As a result, it is critical to develop the tools and skills to detect them. This new task will support this effort and is relevant to both NASA’s human exploration and astrobiology science objectives.
From Habitability to LifeNNA05CS77A Building upon the results of the MER mission, and of our theoretical, experimental, and field work in high-altitude lakes, we bring the focus of this new proposal to the transition from habitability to life. The MER mission has demonstrated that Mars was habitable for life as we know it (in its microbial form) in its early geological history. But habitability does not equate to life, and critical questions have yet to be answered. A sample of those are: - Did the transition happen?
- What was the biological potential of Mars?
- What were the environments where life could have had the mostly likely chance to develop and, perhaps, survive?
- What kind of extreme conditions did life face?
- What types of adaptation and survival tools and skills could life have used?
- If Mars developed life, can we still find its geological, mineralogical, or biological signatures today, whether it is extinct or extant?
This project plans to document critical aspects of those questions and presents a synergetic research focusing on the theme of the transition from habitability to life from various and complementary perspectives as shown in the four tasks summarized in the following table: Task and Sub-Task No. | Title | Lead | 1. Exploration and Characterization of the Surface of Mars | 1.1 | Mars MER investigation and rover surface operations | N. A. Cabrol | 1.2 | Geological investigation of Mars from orbital remote sensing: Topography and basin deposits of the Martian highlands | J. M. Moore | 2. Experimental Studies of Brines and Evaporites as Applied to Mars | 2.1 | Brine formation experiment | J. M. Moore | 2.2 | Mars-Analog evaporite formation experiment | J. M. Moore | 3. Potential Habitats and Life Adaptation Strategies Against Environmental Extremes Relevant to Mars: Their Characteristics and Signatures | 3.1 | Effect of high-UV radiation on life in high-altitude lakes: Analogy to Mars | N. A. Cabrol | 3.2 | Biological and geological signatures of extreme microbiolites in early Mars analog environment | N. A. Cabrol | 4. Development of Detection Strategies for the Robotic Search for Life on Mars and Applications to Upcoming NASA Missions | 4.1 | Robotic astrobiology (the Life in the Atacama “LITA” project) | N. A. Cabrol | 4.2 | Analysis of science operations for the search for life on Mars | N. A. Cabrol |
|