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this in a sense is kind of a holy grail

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for us we're in the outback of Australia

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because this is some of the oldest

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convincing evidence for life on Earth

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and the Mars 2020 mission and the

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ExoMars mission are going to be looking

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for signs of life in the ancient past on

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Mars and it was a great opportunity to

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bring the mission teams here to really

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see for themselves what we're talking

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about when we're talking about ancient

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bio signatures this part of Western

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Australia called the Pilbara

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specifically it's really absolutely a

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mecca for understanding the record of

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life on Earth this is one of the most

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important places on the planet

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geologically speaking members of the

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science team came out here to look at

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some of the oldest rocks that are on

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earth these rocks are anywhere from

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two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half

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billion years old

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about the same age as the rock so we're

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gonna find on Mars and what's very

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special about them is they have evidence

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of the earliest life on Earth the rocks

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you see right in front of me here these

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wrinkly layered structures that we call

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stromatolites structures like this

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actually represent fossilized microbial

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mats and microbial mat is actually a

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structure preserved in the rock made by

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communities of millions and millions of

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microorganisms basically fossilized pond

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scum in a sense microbes bacteria living

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in a shallow water environment and we

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believe that if life ever existed on

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Mars it would have been purely microbial

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and those are left behind in the record

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that are very distinct and so we've been

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showing the NASA and European Space

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Agency scientists the details of what

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those textures look like when we say

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with Mars 2020 we're seeking the signs

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of of ancient life on Mars this is

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precisely the kinds of signs of life

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that we'll be seeking I learned to be

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kind of a Martian to be in a harsh

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environment my comfort zone is the

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laboratory but you know here I can see

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that this is the real stuff it's not

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just simulating stuff in the laboratory

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this is a real good training for us it

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was really important to get the science

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team out here and speaking for myself I

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had seen pictures of rocks like this and

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they didn't really convince me that

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they were the product of life and when

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you see them up close and personal it

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really tells the story that this was

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once life and that's something you just

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can't get if you don't go out and look

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at rocks like this you can study it you

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can read about it but there's nothing

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like the practical experience of

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trekking around in the desert and really

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trying to think about as we land our

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Mars rovers there and we look at the

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images provided by our sensors how do we

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interpret that and follow the clues to

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try to find the kind of evidence that

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has been unearthed here in Australia

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could Mars ever have supported life and

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then to take the next step did Mars ever

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host life