2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Martian aqueous environments from geological and microbiological surveys of ground ice regions and machine learning

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	20H00195
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 17:Earth and planetary science and related fields
Research Institution	Tokyo Institute of Technology
Principal Investigator	Sekine Yasuhito 東京工業大学, 地球生命研究所, 教授 (60431897)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	McGlynn Shawn・E. 東京工業大学, 地球生命研究所, 准教授 (10751084) 庄司大悟国立研究開発法人宇宙航空研究開発機構, 宇宙科学研究所, 招聘研究員 (10831109) 福士圭介金沢大学, 環日本海域環境研究センター, 教授 (90444207) 石上玄也慶應義塾大学, 理工学部(矢上), 准教授 (90581455) GUTTENBERG NICHOLAS・RYAN 東京工業大学, 地球生命研究所, 研究員 (10747132)
Project Period (FY)	2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	宇宙・惑星化学 / 固体惑星探査 / 陸域水循環・物質循環 / 大気圏・水圏化学 / 生物圏地球化学
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The existence of liquid water and habitability on Mars today have long been a mystery. In this study, we focused on water-related landforms and minerals on Mars and their terrestrial analogs, and aimed to field survey Mars-like environments and understand the water cycles, reconstruct microbial ecosystems in Mars-like environments, understand landform formation mechanisms through laboratory simulations, and discover and understand the distribution of water-related landforms through machine learning. The hydrogeochemical cycles were clarified as follows: salt water is formed by subsurface water-rock reactions, the subsurface salt water springs from different elevations to form surface water, and salt remains on the surface due to freeze-drying. The deliquescence of salts also reveals that microbial ecosystems can be formed, albeit with a small amount of biomass.
Free Research Field	惑星科学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究は、人類の長年の謎である「地球外に生命はいるか」という問いに対して、現在の火星も液体の存在という意味において、それに適した環境があることを示唆するものである。同時に、現在の火星における水の循環や挙動の理解は、将来の有人火星探査や火星移住においても、現地での水資源となるため重要である。