Microbial life in desert soil horizons and recovery of genetic bio-signatures using an autonomous rover in a Mars-analogue environment

The hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest desert region on Earth and is widely regarded as a tractable Mars analogue. Here we report findings from a two-week robotic deployment in the hyperarid core (desert pavement) and transition zone (playa) of the Atacama Desert. Manual sampling from soil pits was used to build an accurate picture of microbial community variation with location and depth. A rover-mounted robotic drill was then deployed to conduct parallel sampling in vertical soil horizon transects from surface to 800mm depth. The findings indicated clear depth-defined genetic biosignatures were recoverable from Atacama Desert soils.