Chemical Guidance in the Search for Past and Extant Life on Mars

TL;DR

This paper advocates for Mars missions focused on discovering life by applying knowledge of prebiotic chemistry and universal molecular principles to guide the search for RNA origins and life signatures.

Contribution

It proposes a chemistry-informed framework for designing Mars missions aimed at detecting life, emphasizing prebiotic chemistry and universal molecular constraints.

Findings

Guidelines for designing life-detection missions based on chemical principles

Emphasis on RNA prebiotic chemistry as a target for exploration

Use of universal chemical constraints to identify biosignatures

Abstract

NASA should design missions to Mars for the purpose of generating "Aha!" discoveries to jolt scientists contemplating the molecular origins of life. These missions should be designed with an understanding of the privileged chemistry that likely created RNA prebiotically on Earth, and universal chemical principles that constrain the structure of Darwinian molecules generally.