Another proposal is for an Astrobiology Field Lab that would conduct a robotic search for life. It would be the first mission since Viking in the 1970s to look specifically for evidence of past or present life. The robotic lab would carry instruments for identifying and measuring the chemical building blocks for life (as we know it), including thousands of carbon-carrying compounds, elements such as sulfur and nitrogen, and oxidation states of trace metals associated with life. It would conduct detailed analysis of geologic environments identified by the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory as being conducive to life. Such environments might include fine-grained sedimentary layers, hot spring mineral deposits, icy layers near the poles, or sites such as gullies where liquid water once flowed or may continue to seep into soils from melting ice packs.

Source:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/images/Astrobiology-Field-Lab.jpg archive copy at the Wayback Machine

• http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/future/futureMissions.html archive copy at the Wayback Machine

Image: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Corby Waste

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