A new deal for the human exploration of Mars.

Common ground between human spaceflight and astrobiology can be used as the foundation for a new deal in the exploration of Mars that will allow stakeholders to reach critical astrobiological goals while supporting safer human exploration.

Setting the geological scene for the origin of life and continuing open questions about its emergence.

The origin of life is one of the most fundamental questions of humanity. It has been and is still being addressed by a wide range of researchers from different fields, with different approaches and ideas as to how it came about. What is still incomplete is constrained information about the environment and the conditions reigning on the Hadean Earth, particularly on the inorganic ingredients available, and the stability and longevity of the various environments suggested as locations for the emergence of life, as well as on the kinetics and rates of the prebiotic steps leading to life.

Lacustrine sedimentation by powerful storm waves in Gale crater and its implications for a warming episode on Mars.

This investigation documents that the Rugged Terrain Unit, the Stimson formation, and the Greenheugh sandstone were deposited in a 1200 m-deep lake that formed after the emergence of Mt. Sharp in Gale crater, Mars, nearly 4 billion years ago. In fact, the Curiosity rover traversed on a surface that once was the bottom of this lake and systematically examined the strata that were deposited in its deepest waters on the crater floor to layers that formed along its shoreline on Mt.