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| Figuring out the survival suits, AMASE 2004 |
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| Testing a new field portable spectrophotometer, AMASE 2005 |
In 2000, I helped organize a workshop
held at the Geophysical Laboratory, sponsored by the National Research Council.
In our report titled “Signs of Life: A report based on the April 2000 Workshop
on Life Detection Strategies” (2001) we wrote the following:
“We make
the assumption that if life exists on other planets or moons, it will be carbon
based and dependent on liquid water. It
will also be self-replicating and capable of evolving. Carbon is the best element for creating
macromolecules; it can form chemical bonds with many other atoms to produce
biochemical complexity. All life on Earth evolved from a single type of cell,
referred to as the last common ancestor, and thus shares the same genetic code
and central biochemistry. Extraterrestrial life could be so different from life
on Earth that modern methods would fail to detect it.”
We were on the search for life as we
don’t know it. Meanwhile, our challenge was to find evidence of life in the
most extreme, seemingly barren places here on Earth. My efforts started with
the AMASE expeditions, beginning in 2003, with Hans Amundsen of the University
of Oslo as leader. He had assembled an international team of scientists and
expedition artists for a voyage to the northern islands of the Svalbard
Archipelago. Svalbard is located at about 80° north latitude, the same latitude
as northern Greenland. Northern Svalbard is an Arctic desert, which was one of
the principal Mars analogue traits important to our ecosystem studies. It is
serviced by flights into the major town of Longyearbyen, a combination frontier
and tourist destination visited in summer by people from around the world. Like
Mars, Svalbard is cold, dry, and virtually devoid of biomass---with exposed
rock formations, as well as thermal springs and dormant volcanoes, all-important
characteristics for our study.
My Geophysical Laboratory colleague
Andrew Steele and his student Maia Schweitzer were invited on the 2003 trip.
Steele was a novice field scientist, having worked primarily in the lab on
experimental studies. Liane Benning of Leeds University, who became a close
scientific partner of mine during future AMASE trips, accompanied them on the
trip. Steele and Schweitzer brought back interesting microbial samples and
rocks from Svalbard volcanoes to examine traces of microbial life and organic
carbon concentrations.
In the laboratory, I began to engage in
the analyses of the samples finding small amounts of carbon and nitrogen in
mantle xenoliths, as well as measuring carbon and oxygen isotopes in a variety
of carbonates, some of which were cryogenically precipitated. Amundsen visited
the Geophysical Laboratory in December that year and learned that I had a
perspective that had not yet been considered. Not only were stable isotopes key
for all the samples we collected, but also as a biogeochemist and
geo-ecologist, I could bring a different perspective to sampling a Mars-analog
site. I was therefore invited to participate in the AMASE 2004 expedition the
following summer.
The Geophysical Laboratory group in
2004 consisted of Andrew Steele, Maia Schweitzer, Jan Toporski and Jake Maule
(Steele’s postdocs), Verena Starke (Steele’s graduate student), and me. The
Director of the Geophysical Laboratory at that time was Wes Huntress, former
NASA Associate Director and champion of the Astrobiology program. He provided
special support for several of us to participate in the expedition. We took
with us numerous small items of equipment designed to make measurements of
nutrients and bacterial loads in the field. There were boxes of 50 ml Falcon
tubes, rock bags, reagents, and rock hammers. We all packed duffle bags full of
winter clothes, hiking boots, liquid nitrogen dewars, and other field gear. Our
departure from Dulles International Airport was complex because of extra bags,
travel from one airline to another, and the remote destination in Svalbard.
Miraculously, we all arrived in Longyearbyen with our scientific and personal
gear ready to meet other AMASE participants and train for the voyage to our
field sites. For most of my life, I
abhorred cold weather. The thought of heading to one of the coldest regions of
the Earth was something that appealed to me only later in life. Summers in the
high Arctic can be very pleasant, depending on the year, with daytime
temperatures requiring only a light jacket. Alternatively, a freak snowstorm
can blow in, plummeting temperatures far below zero. By the time in 2004 that I
left for Svalbard at 80° North latitude, I was so excited to be immersed in
this cold, remote landscape. First impressions of this trip were of the outpost
city, Longyearbyen, a frontier town with tourist shops and restaurants. I
couldn’t wait to board our ship the M/V Polarsyssel and head out to the gray
Arctic Ocean.
After arriving in Longyearbyen, we
settled into the local hostel, tested our equipment, purchased more
Arctic-worthy gear, and learned about rifles and polar bears. The polar bear is
the top carnivore in the Arctic. Typically, these bears spend much of their
time on the ice pack hunting seals, but in the summer, when the ice pack
retreats, the bears move onto land, give birth to their cubs, and do most of
their hunting near shore. Polar bears are a protected and endangered species
for a number of reasons, but polar bears and humans should not mix. The AMASE
team was taken to the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) rifle range to learn
how to protect our fellow scientists and ourselves if we did have a close
encounter with a bear. Fortunately, I grew up with a father who was a hunter
and taught me how to shoot a rifle, albeit a rather small one, at targets. The
rifles we had in Svalbard were German Mausers, comparable to 30-06 rifles in
the United States. They were heavy and manually operated; automatic weapons are
banned in Norway. We learned loading and unloading of ammunition first, then
the three positions for firing.
Our group of about 15 was splayed out
on our stomachs, the first shooting position we learned. The rifles had a
substantial kick to them, and it took a steady hand to control the rifle as the
shot was fired. We each fired off a round of 4 bullets at the target, learned
to carefully check our weapon to see if it was emptied of bullets, and laid
down the guns. Our trainers checked the targets. I hit mine every time--not in
the center, but in a respectable area that may have been lethal. Our second
position was kneeling, which required greater control of the heavy rifle, but
improved our ability to aim it properly. Finally, we learned to fire the rifle
standing up, the most comfortable pose, but also requiring attention to detail
and a strong stance. My aim was decent and I passed the test to be able to
defend myself and others from polar bears. Of course, we all hoped we would
never have to actually fire the gun at a bear.
We departed from Longyearbyen about a
week after arriving in Svalbard. Our vessel was the M/V Polarsyssel, an icebreaker
once owned by the Governor of Svalbard, and now available for hire. It was an
older ship, not fitted out for scientific study. After loading our gear, we
underwent our next training on how to don survival suits and learn “man
overboard” drills. The bulky orange suits made us feel like monsters, and we
laughed as we put the giant Norwegian sized suits on and hopped around the deck
of the ship. When at our field sites, we wore these suits as we traveled to
shore in zodiac boats. In ten years of AMASE expeditions, we never had a
serious safety issue in the field.
