Sensor Web in Antarctica: Developing an Intelligent, Autonomous Platform for Locating Biological Flourishes in Cryogenic Environments

Abstract

The most rigorous tests of ability to detect extant life will occur where biotic activity is limited by severe environmental conditions. Cryogenic environments are among most severe-the energy and nutrients needed for biological activity are in short supply while climate itself is actively destructive to biological mechanisms. In such settings biological activity is often limited to brief flourishes, occurring only when and where conditions are at their most favorable. The closer that typical regional conditions approach conditions that are actively hostile , more widely distributed biological blooms will be in both time and space. On a spatial dimension of a few meters or a time dimension of a few days, biological activity becomes much more difficult to detect. One way to overcome this difficulty is to establish a Sensor Web that can monitor microclimates over appropriate scales of time and distance, allowing a continuous virtual presence for instant recognition of favorable conditions. A more sophisticated Sensor Web, incorporating metabolic sensors, can effectively meet challenge to be in the right place in right time. This is particularly of value in planetary surface missions, where limited mobility and mission timelines require extremely efficient sample and data acquisition. Sensor Webs can be an effective way to fill gap between broad scale orbital data collection and fine-scale surface lander science. We are in process of developing an intelligent, distributed and autonomous Sensor Web that will allow us to monitor microclimate under severe cryogenic conditions, approaching those extant on surface of Mars. Ultimately this Sensor Web will include ability to detect and/or establish limits on extant microbiological activity through incorporation of novel metabolic gas sensors. Here we report results of our first deployment of a Sensor Web prototype in a previously unexplored high altitude East Antarctic Plateau micro-oasis at MacAlpine Hills, Law Glacier, Antarctica.