Away Team Archives

Astronauts and Explorers, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, People Of Astrobiology, Tricorders & Sensors

Tricorder Tech: ESA CAVES 2026 Cavenauts Use An Electronic FieldBook

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2026June 26, 2026

Astronauts Tracy Dyson (NASA), Rosemary Coogan (ESA) and Ayu Yoneda (JAXA) measuring water parameters and recording them in the Electronic FieldBook during ESA CAVES2026 course.

Se observa el relieve de la Laguna de Alchichica - Through this picture is possible to see the Alchichica's Lake relief -- Wikipedia cc 4.0 larger image

Analog Studies, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Mars, Microbiology & Virology, Sample Return

Lipid Biomarkers In Microbialites From A Maar Lake: An Astrobiological Study Of Biomarker Preservation under Mars Analog Conditions

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2026June 25, 2026

Lipids constitute resistant biomarkers that have been proposed as pacemakers in the search for possible microbial life-forms in Mars’ past.

Vivid colors belie the arid landscape of northern Chile where the Atacama Desert,one of the world’s driest, meets the foothills of the Andes. Here salt pans andgorges choked with mineral-streaked sediments give way to white-capped volcanoes. This scene was acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA’sTerra satellite on October 28, 2001. Image provided by the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch as part of the Earth as Art II image series. Larger image

Uncategorized

Ecophysiological Study Of Green Microalgae Isolated From The Grit Crust Of The Atacama Desert

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2026June 25, 2026

Terrestrial algae play a critical, yet often overlooked, role in the functioning of biological soil crusts (biocrusts), which are considered microecosystems, particularly in extreme environments.

Astronauts and Explorers

Cavenauts Begin ESA CAVES 2026 Training

by Keith CowingJune 24, 2026June 26, 2026

NASA astronaut candidate Ben Bailey takes a photo of John McFall, a member of ESA’s astronaut reserve and the Fly! Project, whilst measurements are being taken of the water parameters […]

Surface electrostatic maps of adenylate kinase (Adk), β-galactosidase (β-Gal), DNA ligase (LigA), glycerol kinase (GlpK), histidinol-phosphate aminotransferase (HisC), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and signal recognition particle 54 (SRP54) are shown for Escherichia coli (mesophile), Psychromonas ingrahamii (psychrophile), Haloferax volcanii (halophile), and Halorubrum lacusprofundi (psychrohalophile). Electrostatic potentials were calculated from predicted structures and mapped onto the molecular surface. Blue indicates positive electrostatic potential and red indicates negative electrostatic potential. -- Frontiers in Microbiology

Cryobiology

Coordinated Proteome-scale Remodeling Underlies Polyextremophilic Survival In Antarctic Cryo-hypersaline Brines

by Keith CowingJune 24, 2026June 24, 2026

Introduction – Cryo-hypersaline brines combine sub-zero temperatures with near-saturated salinity, creating one of Earth’s most extreme habitats. Antarctic Deep Lake provides a natural model for studying how proteins remain stable […]

Tricorder prototype (Thricorder) built by Hamzah Abugosh -- PioteLabs

Tricorders & Sensors

How To Actually Build Your Own Working Tricorder

by Keith CowingJune 23, 2026June 26, 2026

Editor’s note: Hamzah Abugosh has built a functional tricorder. I share the same fascination he has with the notion of a Tricorder as seen on Star Trek since I was […]

Analog Studies, Astronauts and Explorers, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Sample Return, Status Report

Away Team Training: ESA CAVES 2025 Underground Campsite At Abel Cave

by Keith CowingJune 17, 2026June 26, 2026

A view of the kitchen area at the Abel Cave campsite, where the ESA CAVES 2025 course crew and support team are staying.

Graphical Abstract -- ISME Communications

News Summary Archives, Status Report

Hot life in Antarctica: A Novel Metabolically Versatile Pyrodictiaceae Genus Thriving At A Volcanic–cryosphere–marine Interface

by Keith CowingJune 17, 2026June 17, 2026

Deception Island fumaroles in Antarctica represent rare environments where extreme heat intersects with cryospheric and marine conditions, creating remarkable environmental gradients.

Geologists recently converged on a site near Barstow, California, to ground-truth a mineral discovery made on public land by a NASA JPL sensor flying aboard a plane overhead. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astrogeology, Astronauts and Explorers, Away Teams & Field Reports, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Fossils & Paleontology, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, People Of Astrobiology, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

Away Team Mission: NASA, USGS Scientists Go Rock Hounding in California’s High Desert

by Keith CowingJune 12, 2026June 26, 2026

Editor’s note: when it comes to conducting field trips – sorties – Away Team missions – on another world, astrogeology and astrobiology and astrochemistry overlap with one another all the […]

New fall lines for the Pust'e U'lany meteorite fall. Red lines correspond assuming a spherical shape (eastern extremities correspond to ∼5 g), with four WRF models (labels correspond to initialisation time). Two of the models match the find quite well laterally. Along the fall line, a higher drag shape (cylinder option in the code of M. C. Towner et al. (2022)) provides a somewhat better fit (yellow line). This figure is adapted from Fig. 8 of L. Shrben´y et al. (2026). -- astro-ph.EP

Away Teams & Field Reports, Meteorites & Asteroids, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Sample Return, Status Report

Freo Doctor: Atmospheric Modelling for Meteorite Falls and Spacecraft Re-Entries

by Keith CowingJune 10, 2026June 10, 2026

How much does the wind affect the path of meteorite falls? We finely model the lower ~30 km of the atmosphere using Weather Research and Forecasting open source tools at […]

Away Team

Tricorder Tech: ESA CAVES 2026 Cavenauts Use An Electronic FieldBook

Lipid Biomarkers In Microbialites From A Maar Lake: An Astrobiological Study Of Biomarker Preservation under Mars Analog Conditions

Ecophysiological Study Of Green Microalgae Isolated From The Grit Crust Of The Atacama Desert

Cavenauts Begin ESA CAVES 2026 Training

Coordinated Proteome-scale Remodeling Underlies Polyextremophilic Survival In Antarctic Cryo-hypersaline Brines

How To Actually Build Your Own Working Tricorder

Away Team Training: ESA CAVES 2025 Underground Campsite At Abel Cave

Hot life in Antarctica: A Novel Metabolically Versatile Pyrodictiaceae Genus Thriving At A Volcanic–cryosphere–marine Interface

Away Team Mission: NASA, USGS Scientists Go Rock Hounding in California’s High Desert

Freo Doctor: Atmospheric Modelling for Meteorite Falls and Spacecraft Re-Entries

NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,206 2 July 2026 (Space Life Science Research Results)

Older Than The Sun: Astronomers Find New Clues To The Origin Of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Carl Sagan Month: Call For Participation

The Habitable Worlds Observatory Technology Development Plan

Searching For The Elusive CH2+ With The James Webb Space Telescope. Another Carbocation To Constrain Astrochemical Networks