this stark environment looks like Mars
in a way it is for planetary scientists
chris mckay of NASA's Ames Research
Center his specialty is the study of
life in the universe instead of
traveling to Mars makeda is the next
best thing he leads a diversified team
of scientists into the remote dry
valleys of Western Antarctica near the
ross ice shelf
and spend a couple of months a year
probing the seemingly lifeless
environment for clues to its makeup
studying this barren and frozen
ecosystem allows scientists to approach
the investigation of Mars with a more
educated I the dry Valley region is a
place where temperatures dipped to minus
60 degrees fahrenheit in the winter and
are rarely above freezing in the summer
what startled researchers when they
began their studies about 10 years ago
was the discovery that microorganisms
were living in the sandstone boulders
along the valley wall research assistant
who studies beneath the rugged surface
which is actually a frozen lake hardly
what most of us consider a lake but
nonetheless after taking my sales
13 feet down into the US scientists we
find its liquid component in 10 below
zero whether a diver Don scuba gear in
preparation for the dock
sample food
from the lake mother once inside the
Iceman politely finishes very quickly
the absence of swimming aquatic life is
immediately noticed the crystal clear
water and moderate deaths a thin carpet
of algae can be seen covering the bottom
these primitive organisms called
stromatolites in their fossilized state
may offer one of the best clues about
life on another planet according to
chris mckenna we think that these
organisms are very good analogue to what
we think might have existed on Mars lake
and even to what we think might have
existed on early Earth but we're
studying these organisms to see how they
produce energy capturing sunlight
photosynthesis how they respire look
where they get their nutrients and how
just a whole ecology of a lake that's
under her perennial constant ice-covered
photographic evidence from NASA Viking
spacecraft suggests that Mars had lakes
at one time comparative studies in
Antarctica tell us that life-sustaining
water could have existed below frozen
lakes on early Mars since Mars died an
early death it may hold good fossil
evidence of first life on the mysterious
red planet a sort of life's last stand
on Mars could have been a swim in one of
these frozen lakes and so if we study
the Antartic Lakes we might be able to
come up with methods to find evidence
for this last biological event on Mars
using the frozen lakes of Antarctica as
a laboratory is an important first step
in the future exploration of Mars
knowing where life might have existed on
the dead planet may lead us to the first
evidence of other life day and other
places in our galaxy
you