A VARIETY OF ORGANIC MOLECULES HAVE BEEN FOUND ON MARS BY THE SAMPLE ANALYSIS AT MARS (SAM) EXPERIMENT ONBOARD THE MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY (MSL) ROVER MISSION. AMONG THEM CHLORINATED SULFURBEARING AND HIGH MOLECULAR WEIGHT ORGANIC COMPOUNDS HAVE BEEN DETECTED AS PART OF THE WET CHEMISTRY AND PYROLYSIS-GAS CHROMATOGRAM-MASS SPECTROMETER (PYR-GCMS) EXPERIMENTS. TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THEIR PRECURSORS AND ORIGINS LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS WILL BE CONDUCTED ON MARTIAN ANALOG SAMPLES INCLUDING THOSE WITH SIMILAR MINERALOGY TO THE SEDIMENTARY ROCKS OF GALE CRATER THAT ARE CURRENTLY OR SOON TO BE ANALYZED BY SAM.

Georgetown University, Washington DC

Investigators