21st-Century Astrobiology Missions Should Seek These High-Confidence Biosignatures

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Temby, Christopher, Spacek, Jan
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Temby, Christopher
Spacek, Jan
author_facet Temby, Christopher
Spacek, Jan
contents This white paper was submitted to NASA's Search For Life Science Analysis Group (SFL-SAG): To ensure that the first mission designed to seek signs of extant life since 1976 is able to produce an unambiguous biological interpretation, the SFL-SAG is tasked with identifying the most high-confidence, agnostic biosignatures which are targetable, detectable, and measurable in Martian subsurface mid-latitude ice. To aid in this effort, this white paper highlights three examples of target materials or phenomena, along with associated instrument concepts, which the SFL-SAG shall prioritize in its efforts to define the appropriate astrobiological strategy. These include 1) polyelectrolyte informational biopolymers, 2) macromolecular biological homochirality, and 3) chiral-specific metabolic reactions. The Agnostic Life Finding Association (ALFA) and University of Florida (UF) support the development of instrumentation that seeks these high-confidence biosignatures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_02746
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle 21st-Century Astrobiology Missions Should Seek These High-Confidence Biosignatures
Temby, Christopher
Spacek, Jan
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
This white paper was submitted to NASA's Search For Life Science Analysis Group (SFL-SAG): To ensure that the first mission designed to seek signs of extant life since 1976 is able to produce an unambiguous biological interpretation, the SFL-SAG is tasked with identifying the most high-confidence, agnostic biosignatures which are targetable, detectable, and measurable in Martian subsurface mid-latitude ice. To aid in this effort, this white paper highlights three examples of target materials or phenomena, along with associated instrument concepts, which the SFL-SAG shall prioritize in its efforts to define the appropriate astrobiological strategy. These include 1) polyelectrolyte informational biopolymers, 2) macromolecular biological homochirality, and 3) chiral-specific metabolic reactions. The Agnostic Life Finding Association (ALFA) and University of Florida (UF) support the development of instrumentation that seeks these high-confidence biosignatures.
title 21st-Century Astrobiology Missions Should Seek These High-Confidence Biosignatures
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02746