The Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, Mars, to investigate ancient lake and river deposits. We report observations of the crater floor, below the crater’s sedimentary delta, finding the floor consists of igneous rocks altered by water. The lowest exposed unit, informally named Séítah, is a coarsely crystalline olivine-rich rock, which accumulated at the base of a magma body. Fe-Mg carbonates along grain boundaries indicate reactions with CO 2 -rich water, under water-poor conditions. Overlying Séítah is a unit informally named Máaz, which we interpret as lava flows or the chemical complement to Séítah in a layered igneous body. Voids in these rocks contain sulfates and perchlorates, likely introduced by later near-surface brine evaporation. Core samples of these rocks were stored aboard Perseverance for potential return to Earth.

This review of material relevant to the Conference on Biosignature Preservation and Detection in Mars Analog Environments summarizes the meeting materials and discussions and is further expanded upon by detailed references to the published literature. From this diverse source material, there is a detailed discussion on the habitability and biosignature preservation potential of five primary analog environments: hydrothermal spring systems, subaqueous environments, subaerial environments, subsurface environments, and iron-rich systems. Within the context of exploring past habitable environments on Mars, challenges common to all of these key environments are laid out, followed by a focused discussion for each environment regarding challenges to orbital and ground-based observations and sample selection. This leads into a short section on how these challenges could influence our strategies and priorities for the astrobiological exploration of Mars. Finally, a listing of urgent needs and future research highlights key elements such as development of instrumentation as well as continued exploration into how Mars may have evolved differently from Earth and what that might mean for biosignature preservation and detection. Key Words: Biosignature preservation—Biosignature detection—Mars analog environments—Conference report—Astrobiological exploration. Astrobiology 17, 363–400.

Before Perseverance, Jezero crater’s floor was variably hypothesized to have a lacustrine, lava, volcanic airfall, or aeolian origin. SuperCam observations in the first 286 Mars days on Mars revealed a volcanic and intrusive terrain with compositional and density stratification. The dominant lithology along the traverse is basaltic, with plagioclase enrichment in stratigraphically higher locations. Stratigraphically lower, layered rocks are richer in normative pyroxene. The lowest observed unit has the highest inferred density and is olivine-rich with coarse (1.5 millimeters) euhedral, relatively unweathered grains, suggesting a cumulate origin. This is the first martian cumulate and shows similarities to martian meteorites, which also express olivine disequilibrium. Alteration materials including carbonates, sulfates, perchlorates, hydrated silicates, and iron oxides are pervasive but low in abundance, suggesting relatively brief lacustrine conditions. Orbital observations link the Jezero floor lithology to the broader Nili-Syrtis region, suggesting that density-driven compositional stratification is a regional characteristic.

Executive Summary Return of samples from the surface of Mars has been a goal of the international Mars science community for many years. Affirmation by NASA and ESA of the importance of Mars exploration led the agencies to establish the international MSR Objectives and Samples Team (iMOST). The purpose of the team is to re‐evaluate and update the sample‐related science and engineering objectives of a Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. The iMOST team has also undertaken to define the measurements and the types of samples that can best address the objectives. Seven objectives have been defined for MSR, traceable through two decades of previously published international priorities. The first two objectives are further divided into sub‐objectives. Within the main part of the report, the importance to science and/or engineering of each objective is described, critical measurements that would address the objectives are specified, and the kinds of samples that would be most likely to carry key information are identified. These seven objectives provide a framework for demonstrating how the first set of returned Martian samples would impact future Martian science and exploration. They also have implications for how analogous investigations might be conducted for samples returned by future missions from other solar system bodies, especially those that may harbor biologically relevant or sensitive material, such as Ocean Worlds (Europa, Enceladus, Titan) and others. Summary of Objectives and Sub‐Objectives for MSR Identified by iMOST This objective is divided into five sub‐objectives that would apply at different landing sites. 1.1 Characterize the essential stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and facies variations of a sequence of Martian sedimentary rocks. 1.2 Understand an ancient Martian hydrothermal system through study of its mineralization products and morphological expression. 1.3 Understand the rocks and minerals representative of a deep subsurface groundwater environment. 1.4 Understand water/rock/atmosphere interactions at the Martian surface and how they have changed with time. 1.5 Determine the petrogenesis of Martian igneous rocks in time and space. This objective has three sub‐objectives: 2.1 Assess and characterize carbon, including possible organic and pre‐biotic chemistry. 2.2 Assay for the presence of biosignatures of past life at sites that hosted habitable environments and could have preserved any biosignatures. 2.3 Assess the possibility that any life forms detected are alive, or were recently alive. Summary of iMOST Findings Several specific findings were identified during the iMOST study. While they are not explicit recommendations, we suggest that they should serve as guidelines for future decision making regarding planning of potential future MSR missions. The samples to be collected by the Mars 2020 (M‐2020) rover will be of sufficient size and quality to address and solve a wide variety of scientific questions. Samples, by definition, are a statistical representation of a larger entity...

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