Dr. Becker’s photos, video clips and journal document her expedition to Antarctica to investigate the 250 million year old Permian-Triassic mass extinction event and her preparation of instrumentation designed to detect life signs on Mars. Antarctica lends itself to these investigations due to its unique preservation of Permian-Triassic rocks in several locations on the Antarctic continent and its striking similarities to the present Martian terrain and climate. In the next decade (including January 2004) we will land several spacecraft on the red planet in search of water, an essential ingredient to life as we know it and to further detect extinct or extant life signs.

This web site will be continuously updated with the evaluation of the preservation of Permian-Triassic rocks and her analyses of biomarkers (organic compounds that are derived from biological processes) using state-of-the-art techniques designed to detect life on Mars. The web site will also be linked to other NASA sites including the distance learning programs so that students can follow along and participate in the research program through planned outreach activities designed to capture the projects that Dr. Becker will cover while in the field.

This scientific expedition is sponsored by NASA’s Exobiology and ASTEP programs, the Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore, MD and by the National Science Foundation (Polar Programs) in cooperation with Raytheon Polar Services. Overall it seems appropriate for NASA and NSF to work together in bringing the science that Becker and her colleagues cover to the public and further take advantage of this historic time when we will, once again, explore for life signs on Mars.

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