Australia's billion-year-old rocks are leading Mars life hunt

"They're fossils caused by mats of microorganisms living around 3.5 billion years ago that had their presence captured and preserved in the rock record for all this time."

This astounding survival of life's imprints provides an invaluable lens into Earth's early days.

The relentless churn of geological forces has destroyed much of this evidence on our own planet. However, Pilbara's unique conditions have preserved its geological timeline, mirroring the Mars landscape. 

This uncanny resemblance transforms Pilbara into a testing ground for honing techniques to identify ancient life signs.

The Pilbara journey, lasting a week, involved the teamwork of top experts from NASA's Mars Exploration Program, the Australian Space Agency, ESA, and CSIRO.

Together, they delved into the obstacles of pinpointing fossil clues and how our missions adopt methods, such as precise context measurements, to overcome these hurdles.

Conversations revolved around the difficulty of discovering and verifying indications of ancient life within old rocks. This challenge persists even on Earth, where life has already left its mark.

"To be able to prove that a feature is biogenic, not only do you need to be able to prove that life can create it, but you also need to be able to prove that the particular version of the feature was not created by something else," said Lindsay Hays, deputy lead scientist for Mars Sample Return and Program Scientist for Astrobiology at NASA Headquarters. 

"You have to understand what else is going on in the historical record of the rock section to be able to understand what you're looking at."

Are we alone?

Amidst this exploration, the importance of geological context emerges as a guiding principle. The Pilbara's well-preserved stromatolites serve as a classroom for scientists, illuminating the critical interplay between life and the environment.

These insights cast a revealing light on NASA's Perseverance rover, which has been meticulously exploring Mars' Jezero Crater since 2021. This crater cradles an ancient river delta, echoing the era of Earth's stromatolites. 

The expedition mirrors the rover's tasks, mirroring the process of identifying and studying samples. Thus, the insights from Earth's geological history guide the rover's exploration on Mars.

As we stand on the brink of the rover's upcoming sample-gathering phase, the resonance of Earth's context carries great significance—the combined efforts of Perseverance, ExoMars, and Mars Sample Return missions brim with hope.

However, at its core, it's partnerships like these that bring us a step closer to addressing humanity's timeless questions: Are we alone? What else is out there?