The Mojave Subsurface Bio-geochemistry Explorer (MOSBE)

The MOSBE Team has developed a terrestrial field campaign to explore subsurface biological habitats under the Mojave Desert. This field campaign will not only help us understand terrestrial desert biology, but also will develop methodologies and strategies for future Mars missions that seek to find traces of life in the Martian subsurface. We have proposed to the ASTEP program to integrate a suite of field demonstrated instruments with a 20 m subsurface drill as a coherent unit, the Mojave Subsurface Bio-geochemistry Explorer. The ATK Space Modular Planetary Drill System (MPDS) requires no drilling fluid, which allows aseptic sampling, can penetrate lithic ground up to 20 meters of depth, and utilizes less than 100 W throughout the entire depth. The drill has been developed and demonstrated in field testing to a depth of 10 meters in Arizona, December 2002. In addition to caching a continuous core throughout the drilling depth, it also generates and caches cuttings and fines that are stratagraphically correlated with the core. As a core segment is brought to the surface, it will be analyzed for texture and structure by a color microscopic imager and for relevant chemistry and mineralogy with a UV fluorescence/Raman spectrometer (Bhartia et al., 2011). Organic and soluble ionic species will be identified through two instruments: a microcapillary electrophoresis, and a ion trap mass spectrometer that have been developed under PIDDP, ASTID and MIDP funding (Beegle et al. 2011).