Mars Extant Life: What's Next? : November 5-8, 2019, National Cave and Karst Research Institute, Carlsbad, New Mexico

Abstract

Focused on understanding and discussing strategies for exploring for extant life on Mars. We are especially interested in hypotheses that can be tested by means of robotic spacecraft sent to Mars, and hypotheses that can be tested with or without the benefit of sample acquisition systems. The four primary questions posited are: Where would new robotic spacecraft be sent to test for extant life on Mars? What would they sample? What would be measured in such samples? Are there viable strategies that don't involve sample collection?