Testing the Hydrogen Peroxide-Water Hypothesis for Life on Mars with the TEGA instrument on the Phoenix Lander

TL;DR

This study simulates TEGA instrument experiments to test the hypothesis that hydrogen peroxide-water mixtures could explain Martian surface chemistry, providing a baseline for distinguishing chemical from biological signals.

Contribution

It offers laboratory simulations of TEGA experiments to evaluate the hydrogen peroxide-water hypothesis for Martian oxidants, aiding interpretation of future Phoenix Lander data.

Findings

Laboratory experiments mimic TEGA analysis conditions.

Results establish a baseline for chemical versus biological responses.

Supports testing the hydrogen peroxide-water hypothesis on Mars.

Abstract

Since Viking has conducted its life detection experiments on Mars, many missions have enhanced our knowledge about the environmental conditions on the Red Planet. However, the Martian surface chemistry and the Viking lander results remain puzzling. Non-biological explanations that favor a strong inorganic oxidant are currently favored (e.g., Mancinelli, 1989; Quinn and Zent, 1999; Klein, 1999, Yen et al., 2000), but problems remain regarding the life time, source, and abundance of that oxidant to account for the Viking observations (Zent and McKay, 1994). Alternatively, a hypothesis favoring the biological origin of a strong oxidizer has recently been advanced (Houtkooper and Schulze-Makuch, 2007). Here, we report about laboratory experiments that simulate the experiments to be conducted by the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) instrument of the Phoenix lander, which is to descend on Mars in May 2008. Our experiments provide a baseline for an unbiased test for chemical versus biological responses, which can be applied at the time the Phoenix Lander transmits its first results from the Martian surface.