NASA research in Western Australia could hold key to finding life on Mars

Updated

Searching for life on Mars, scientists turn to the Australian outback for clues, but find the key to humanity's ancient past and its next frontier is under threat.

There are parts of Western Australia that remain almost untouched by humanity.

The rugged ranges and red earth stretch uninterrupted as far as the eye can see.

It is similar to the environment of Mars billions of years ago, before the planet lost much of its atmosphere.

Parched river beds snake between rocky outcrops, with just a few specks of greenery rising from the thirsty landscape.

Eucalyptus trees clutch to the sides of an almost dry creek and only mounds of hardy spinifex grow out of the rocky earth.

There are small marks of mankind on the environment, ancient forms in the Aboriginal rock art carved into the landscape.

There are modern markings too.

Signs of a new set of visitors.

Today the unforgiving landscape is crawling with humans from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), who are trying to unlock the secrets of the area's very special stones.

This remote region of the Pilbara is home to the cradle of life on Earth and possibly the key to finding it on Mars.

"Wow, that stuff is spiky," says an American scientist wrestling with cruel spinifex grass for the first time.

Jim Watson climbs across a precarious cliff-side, dressed from head to toe in protective clothing, his only defence from the harsh elements here.

He is the director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program and this is his first time in outback Australia.

"We brought our teams here to learn how to look for signs of ancient life on Mars," he said.

This remote patch of Australia is home to the oldest signs of life on Earth, dating back more than 3 billion years.

And there's much these scientists can learn from them.

In less than a year, NASA will launch a rover from Cape Canaveral in Florida to Mars with the goal of collecting samples of the planet's crust.

The ESA is embarking on a similar mission at nearly the same time next year.

Both space agencies are using their 2020 expeditions to learn more about the planet's geology, to ultimately determine how Mars evolved and if it was ever home to life.

This trip to the Pilbara is informing them about what samples they should collect and how to look for rocks on Mars that may contain fossilised forms of life.

"They'll be on the greatest treasure hunt ever," Jim said about his team of scientists.

"Their job is to try and search out and interpret the geology of Mars to understand both the evolution of the planet, but also in our search for signs of ancient life.

"We hope we can start to have a better understanding of 'are we alone in the universe?' and 'how and why did life start?'."

Today, the group of about two dozen scientists from both NASA and the ESA are students, perched at the bottom of a large outcrop.

This is what they have travelled across the world to see, and it's easy to miss with an untrained eye.

A solid black squiggle, sandwiched between layers of ancient rock, a formation that is billions of years old.

They are called stromatolites: layered mounds, columns or sheets of rock that were once single-cell microbes.

This is a fossilised form of microbial life that humans evolved from, and throughout this area these ancient signs of life are plentiful.

"The exciting thing about these outcrops is you're looking at your great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfathers and grandmothers, this is really the start of everything."

Martin Van Kranendonk is the teacher on this trip, the man the world's top space scientists have turned to.

He is the head of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, based at the University of New South Wales, and has spent much of his life studying these ancient rocks.

"It's a very special place not just for me as a scientist but really for all of humanity," he said.

He has unabated enthusiasm for this land, and has passed on his deep knowledge of this country to everyone from NASA scientists, to students, to school kids.

While the foreign scientists move across the country with caution, he glides around the formations with a confident familiarity.

But his fear is that this geological wonder of the world — that's survived billions of years — is now facing a new threat.

This area is a state-recognised geo-heritage reserve, protected from mining activity but not from illegal fossil hunters.

"We've been greatly saddened that some of the showcase pieces that have some of the richest samples have been taken," Martin said.

"They take that record from all of humanity."

He points to a rock that has a new blunt edge. A slab has recently been removed.

"When I first came here 15 years ago this sample had a beautiful stromatolite," Martin says.

"But that has been taken out and removed.

"That record of ongoing life has been lost forever.

"My great fear is some of the best evidence of life on this planet will be removed to sit on a desk, or in a collection, or be sold on eBay."

While these rare rocks remain, there is a chance for the next generation of scientists to start learning.

A group of local teenagers are getting the chance to study their surroundings through new eyes.

Zaliya Edgar, 12, is one of the students from Hedland High School who has the chance to learn from the boss of NASA's Mars mission and his staff.

She grew up hearing the Aboriginal creation stories of this land and knows how special the country is to the people who have called it home for centuries.

Today, NASA scientists are teaching her the scientific significance of her backyard.

"I never actually realised," Zaliya says, that the land she grew up playing on has similarities to Mars.

"I just thought I grew up in a hot town, nothing to actually really like, but now it's actually started to get me interested."

Soon the students are off to do their own fieldwork, and in a quiet conversation on the bumpy bus ride out, Zaliya chats to her friend about a future in science.

"Would you want to be an astronaut? Or a scientist?" she asks her friend.

"I would like to, you know fly around in space, see if there's life on Mars."

It is for this reason that Martin is lobbying Western Australia's Government to implement stricter protections of the area.

He fears this valuable learning tool, an inspiration for future scientists, could be lost.

He wants an increased physical presence on the land and believes the first custodians of the country are the best people for the job.

"In our dream vision this would be a protected area, with an onsite centre, housed and hosted by Indigenous rangers that can tell the story of their country and the rocks," Martin said.

"So we can have protection, but also that would allow us to open it up to visitors and share the story of our ancestry."

Credits:

Reporting and photography: National Indigenous affairs correspondent Isabella Higgins

Additional photography and videography: Elena de Bruijne

Editing and digital production: The Specialist Reporting Team's Emily Clark

Topics: science-and-technology, earth-sciences, science, education, states-and-territories, government-and-politics, astronomy-space, space-exploration, geology, environment, port-hedland-6721, wa, australia

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