Exploring Organic Environments in the Solar System (2007) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-8
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In particular, the Task Group on Organic Environments in the Solar System surveys what is known about the sources of reduced carbon compounds throughout the solar system and examines how planetary exploration can improve our understanding. It is not the purpose of this report to recommend expensive new research activities and propose costly new initiatives.
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With regard to the indicators that might differentiate between a biotic and an abiotic origin for particular organic compounds, the task group found that the most compelling indicators of an abiotic origin include the following: · The presence of a smooth distribution of organic compounds in a sample, e.g., a balance of even versus odd numbers of carbon atoms in alkanes; · The presence of all possible structures, patterns, isomers, and stereoisomers in a subset of compounds such as amino acids; · A balance of observed entantiomers; and · The lack of depletions or enrichments of certain isotopes with respect to the isotopic ratio normally expected. Likewise, the converse of the above items is an indicator of possible biotic synthesis.
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These recommended approaches to research will allow scientists to build an overview of the distribution of organic carbon in the solar system; provide information about heterogeneity at each location studied; and support preliminary estimates of relationships, if any, between organic materials at diverse sites. Selected Opportunities for Research The selected research opportunities were divided by the task group into three general categories based on the cost of the research and the time frame in which it could be undertaken.
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Regolith simulations may help address issues related to, for example, optimal minimum drilling depths for future Mars lander missions. Recommendation: Laboratory models of Mars soil chemistry should be used to study plausible mechanisms for the oxidative alteration of organic materials in the martian regolith and to evaluate their integrated effects.
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Activities that would significantly enhance groundbased observations of organic materials in the solar system include increasing NASA's share of the observing time on the Keck telescope and replacing the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility with a larger instrument capable of making these observations. Recommendation: The task group reiterates the call made in the 2003 report of the National Research Council's Solar System Exploration Decadal Survey Committee, New Frontiers in the Solar System, that NASA's support for planetary observations with ground-based astronomical instruments, such as the Infrared Telescope Facility and the Keck telescopes, be continued and upgraded as appropriate, for as long as they provide significant scientific return and/or mission-critical support services.1 Interplanetary Dust and Molecules.
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Thus, it may be possible to obtain additional information about the associated organic matter present in these mineral assemblages in a single measurement of the organic and inorganic material present. Recommendation: Currently planned missions to Mars should seek to identify silicified martian terrains associated with ancient low-temperature hot springs in concert with a high probability of ground ice deposits to locate organic materials formed on Mars.
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JIMO was indefinitely deferred in 2005, and NASA and the planetary science community are currently assessing plans for a more conventional and very much less expensive alternative.7 Recommendation: The task group reiterates the solar system exploration decadal survey's findings and conclusions with respect to the exploration of Europa and recommends that NASA and the space science community develop a strategy for the development of a capable Europa orbiter mission and that such a mission be launched as soon as it is financially and programmatically feasible. Any future Europa lander mission should be equipped with a mass spectrometer capable of identifying simple organic materials in a background of water and hydrated silicates.
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6. NRC, New Frontiers in the Solar System: An Integrated Exploration Strategy, 2003, p.
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