International audienceThe ChemCam instrument, which provides insight into martian soil chemistry at the submillimeter scale, identified two principal soil types along the Curiosity rover traverse: a fine-grained mafic type and a locally derived, coarse-grained felsic type. The mafic soil component is representative of widespread martian soils and is similar in composition to the martian dust. It possesses a ubiquitous hydrogen signature in ChemCam spectra, corresponding to the hydration of the amorphous phases found in the soil by the CheMin instrument. This hydration likely accounts for an important fraction of the global hydration of the surface seen by previous orbital measurements. ChemCam analyses did not reveal any significant exchange of water vapor between the regolith and the atmosphere. These observations provide constraints on the nature of the amorphous phases and their hydration

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[1] The Phoenix mission's key objective was to search for a habitable zone. Mission results are used to evaluate habitability where Phoenix landed. A habitability probability (HI) is defined as the product of probabilities for the presence of liquid water (P lw ), energy (P e ), nutrients (P ch ), and a benign environment (P b ). Observational evidence for the presence of liquid water (past or present) includes clean ice at a polygon boundary, chemical etching of soil grains, and carbonate minerals. The presence of surface and near subsurface ice, along with thermodynamic conditions that support melting, suggest that liquid water is theoretically possible. Presently, unfrozen water can form only in adsorbed films or saline brines but more clement conditions recur periodically due to variations in orbital parameters. Energy to drive metabolism is available from sunlight, when semitransparent soil grains provide shielding from UV radiation and chemical energy from the redox couple of perchlorate and reduced iron. Nutrient sources including C, H, N, O, P, and S compounds are supplied by known atmospheric sources or global dust. Environmental conditions are within growth tolerance for terrestrial microbes. Surface soil temperatures currently reach 260 K and are periodically much higher, the pH is 7.8 and is well buffered, and the water activity is high enough to allow growth when sufficient water is available. Computation of HI for the sites visited by landers yields Phoenix, 0.47; Meridiani, 0.23; Gusev, 0.22; Pathfinder, 0.05; Viking 1, 0.01; Viking 2, 0.07. HI for the Phoenix site is the largest of any site explored, but dissimilar measurements limit the comparisons' confidence.

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The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite instrument on board NASA's Curiosity rover has characterized the inorganic and organic chemical composition of seven samples from the Glen Torridon clay-bearing unit. A variety of organic molecules were detected with SAM using pyrolysis (up to ~850°C) and wet chemistry experiments coupled with evolved gas analysis (EGA) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). SAM EGA and GCMS analyses revealed a greater diversity and abundance of sulfur-bearing aliphatic and aromatic organic compounds in the sediments of this Gale crater unit than earlier in the mission. We also report the detection of nitrogen-containing, oxygen-containing, and chlorinecontaining molecules, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons found in Glen Torridon (GT), although the sources of some of these organics may be related to the presence of chemical reagents in the SAM instrument background. However, sulfur-bearing organics released at high temperature (>600°C) are likely derived from martian sources (e.g., igneous, hydrothermal, atmospheric, or biological) or exogenous sources and consistent with the presence of recalcitrant organic materials in the sample. The SAM measurements of the GT clay-bearing unit expand the inventory of organic matter present in Gale crater and is also consistent with the hypothesis that clay minerals played an important role in the preservation of ancient refractory organic matter on Mars. These findings deepen our understanding of the past habitability and biological potential of Gale crater.