Recently, our team of astrobiologists descended 1.1 kilometers below Earth’s surface to the Mars-like environment of the Boulby Mine in the UK looking for answers about life on other planets. Six members of the MASE team headed to the mine on the North East coast of England to study ancient formations of honey-comb like hexagonal patterns that were formed 250 million years ago. Similar geological formations have been observed in Mars and the analysis of these rocks will help future space missions to better identify potentially habitable regions.
The objective of the campaign to Boulby Mine was to collect solid samples to study their composition whilst at the same time testing different life-detection instruments that can be used to study salt deposits on Earth and elsewhere.
