Mars Analogue Research

As part of three years program under the approval of Wildlife Department of Ladakh and UT Ladakh administration. In collaboration with Cosmic Adventures Private Limited and multiple partnering organizations, our center will undertake early earth, climate change, mars analogue research, as part of ESEP 2021 - 2023

For 2021 please find information here.

Ladakh: Cold, very high altitude, dry desert environment

Lonar Crater: Preservation of Ancient Life in Basaltic Targets

Early Mars Analogues: Habitability and Biosignature Preservation in Hypersaline Lakes and Permafrost

Several saline lakes present in Ladakh’s high-altitude, rain-shadowed region are potential analogues to lakes that existed on early Mars (>3 Ga), formed by evaporation of briny surface lakes. Over 600 small (∼<25 km2) individual light-toned chloride deposits have been observed across the surface of Mars and appear to be associated with the fine-scale polygonal pattern, topographic lows and fluvial channels. They are relevant to planetary geomorphologists studying early Mars and have astrobiology significance in relation to the habitability of groups studying microbial life in briny environments and salt deposits. Our group is studying Tso Kar, Ladakh as an Early Mars Analogue and exploring in-situ analysis of samples, testing of hand-held/rover-based instruments for biosignature studies. We published an overview of Ladakh's astrobiology potential here

Investigations of Multiple Planetary Analogue Crater Terrains (IMPACT)

Our Centre and Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP) Lucknow are involved in conducting a planetary analog study at Lonar Crater, a rare impact crater in basalt hosting a similar lake-delta system to the one in Jezero Crater, Mars. Our goal is to assess organic preservation potential in deltaic and lacustrine sediments and, to a lesser extent, in gullies inside and outside of the crater rim. Our scientific objectives include characterization of the habitability and preservation potential of three distinct crater terrains at Lonar: (1) a delta fan and lake shoreline in Lonar Crater, (2) inner crater gullies, and (3) gullies external to the crater, formed in the ejecta blanket. Our Centre is developing relevant concepts of operations (ConOps) and decision-making flow pathways relevant for future planetary mission activities by conducting science-driven field operations under imposed, Mars Mission-like constraints of duration and range.

Publications

Siddharth Pandey, Michael C. Macey, Debashree Das, Anurup Mohanty, Satyam Tiwari, Jovel Varghese Jose, and Siddhant Sharma.

New Space (2021), Ahead of Print. http://doi.org/10.1089/space.2021.0041

Jonathan D. A. Clarke, Savannah McGuirk & Siddharth Pandey (2020) Inverted dune swales, Hunder, Ladakh, India, Physical Geography, https://doi.org/10.1080/02723646.2020.1858556

Pandey, S., Clarke, J., Nema, P., Bonaccorsi, R., Som, S., Sharma, M., . . . Bapat, N. (2020). Ladakh: Diverse, high-altitude extreme environments for off-earth analogue and astrobiology research. International Journal of Astrobiology, 19(1), 78-98. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1473550419000119

Joshi, M.P.; Samanta, A.; Tripathy, G.R.; Rajamani, S. Formation and Stability of Prebiotically Relevant Vesicular Systems in Terrestrial Geothermal Environments. Life 2017, 7, 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/life7040051

Luke H. Steller, Eizo Nakamura, Tsutomu Ota, Chie Sakaguchi, Mukund Sharma, and Martin J. Van Kranendonk. Astrobiology Dec 2019.1459-1473. http://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2018.1966

Sanjay S. Limaye, Rakesh Mogul, David J. Smith, Arif H. Ansari, Grzegorz P. Słowik, and Parag Vaishampayan. Astrobiology Sep 2018.1181-1198. http://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2017.1783

Sharma, M. Precambrian Biosphere: An Analogue for Astrobiology. J Geol Soc India 93, 622 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-019-1208-7