Martian subsurface habitability and astrobiology can be evaluated via a lava tube cave, without drilling. MACIE addresses two key goals of the Decadal Survey (2013-2022) and three MEPAG goals. New advances in robotic architectures, autonomous navigation, target sample selection, and analysis will enable MACIE to explore the Martian subsurface.
@article{arxiv.2105.05281,
title = {Mars Astrobiological Cave and Internal habitability Explorer (MACIE): A New Frontiers Mission Concept},
author = {Charity M. Phillips-Lander and Ali Agha-Mohammadi and J. J. Wynne and Timothy N. Titus and Nancy Chanover and Cansu Demirel-Floyd and Kyle Uckert and Kaj Williams and Danielle Wyrick and Jen Blank and Penelope Boston and Karl Mitchell and Akos Kereszturi and Javier Martin-Torres and Svetlana Shkolyar and Nicole Bardebelias and Saugata Datta and Kurt Retherford and Lydia Sam and Anshuman Bhardwaj and Alberto Fairen and David Flannery and Roger Weins},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2105.05281},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
This paper was submitted to the Planetary and Astrobiology Decadal Survey in August 2020