The Icebreaker Life Mission: Exploring Mars for Biomolecular Evidence of Recent Life

The Icebreaker mission, already proposed in 2015 and 2019 to NASA’s Discovery program, would be the first mission to search for life signatures on Mars using biomolecular methods. Icebreaker would land in the ice-rich mid-latitudes of Mars and collect samples down to 2m depth to 1) search for molecular signatures of life and 2) assess the habitability of the icy regolith in the context of recent orbital cycles. Icebreaker will address high-priority scientific questions within NASA’s Planetary Science program and as outlined within the National Academies’ Decadal Survey on Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2022-2023. Icebreaker also will address the science goals of the Decadal Survey-prioritized Mars Life Explorer (MLE) mission concept, which would search for “signatures of life and understand habitability of near-surface ice”.