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★ [PPS02-06] 生命探査顕微鏡:蛍光顕微鏡をもちいた火星表面での微生物探査
キーワード:火星, 生命探査, 蛍光顕微鏡, 微生物, 有機物
Past trial of direct detection of life on Mars by 1970's Viking mission reported a negative conclu-sion, whereas numbers of circumstances provided by recent Mars exploration missions in the last dec-ade indicate that there are good reasons to perform another life detection program.Here we propose Life Detection Microscope that has much higher sensitivity than the instrument onboard Viking. Indeed Life Detection Microscope (LDM) that we propose here could detect less than 104 cells in 1 gram clay. Our life detecting instru-ment has the sensitivity that is three orders of mag-nitude higher than the one onboard Viking that issued the negative conclusion. LDM is capable of identifying what we think to be the most fundamen-tal features that a cell should possess to constitute life.Our Investigation Goals are:1: High-resolution characterization of regolith and dust particles.2: Search for any type of organic compounds in Mars surface samples. The compounds include cells, other biological materials, and abiotic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH).3: Identify cell-like structure in which organic compounds are enveloped by membrane, which may represent Martian life.