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Since 2003 the Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) has been traveling to field sites on Svalbard to test the protocols, procedures and equipment needed to detect traces of organic chemistry and perhaps life on Mars. The AMASE crew over the years has consisted of over a hundred scientists and engineers from institutions around the world. Follow the AMASE 2008 expedition.

Read about the AMASE 2007 expedition.

  
      In summer 2006 scientists and researchers spent two and a half weeks in Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of Norway. The objective of the Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) was to characterize the geology, geophysical features, biosignatures, and possible life forms of volcanic centers, warm springs, and sedimentary deposits; settings thought to be analogous to sites on ancient Mars. The equipment used in the field was adapted from off-the-shelf instruments to function in the cold Svalbard temperatures and to detect and characterize low levels of microbiota and organic and mineralogical biomarkers rapidly. These tools assisted in a real-time understanding of the environment and permitted the team to gather pertinent samples and test hypotheses with minimal sample disturbance.  The sample acquisition and analysis methods provided tests of protocols for experiments on future missions to Mars.

SAM in the Arctic

The AMASE 06 SAM Team consisted of PI Paul Mahaffy, Oliver Botta and Kirsten Fristad of Goddard and Pamela Conrad of JPL.

For a personal account of the expedition see Notes From the Field by Kirsten Fristad


Partially funded by an Astrobiology Science and Technology for the Exploration of Planets (ASTEP) grant led by Andrew Steele, several members of the SAM team participated in AMASE 06.  The SAM team brought a portable field GCMS similar to the unit flying on MSL into the field for in situ organic analyses.  SAM science focused on furthering sample analysis procedures and integrating with a variety of instrument teams, including another MSL instrument, CheMin, in a simulated Mars mission environment.  The SAM team had a sucessful field deployment of the GCMS and has returned to the lab with many samples for further studies.

Participants

AMASE 06 consisted of an international crew of scientists, engineers and filmmakers. Participating members hail from the University of Oslo (PGP), Electromagnetic Geoservices (Norway), Carnegie Institute of Washington, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Ames Research Center, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Penn State, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, University of Indiana, Smithsonian Institution, University of Leeds (UK), International Space Science Institute and Optic Verve. AMASE first began four years ago led by Hans Amundsen of Physics of Geological Processes at the University of Oslo. AMASE is currently supported by a NASA ASTEP grant led by PI Andrew Steele of the Carnegie Institute of Washington.

AMASE is made possible by the strong support of UNIS, the Polar Institute, and the Governor and people of Svalbard.