Study of habitability from Mars-NEXT

Abstract

The question whether life exists or could have existed on other planets than Earth is not just limited to the search for life but it also requires an understanding of the habitable planetary environments. In its simplest form, habitability requires the stability of liquid water on the surface and/or subsurface of a planet. The factors that determine the stability of water and thus the habitability of a planet are multifaceted and include the internal dynamics, the presence or absence of a magnetosphere, the characteristics and evolution of a planet’s atmosphere, and the presence of energy sources. Those processes have a complex interplay and need to be studied in an interdisciplinary and comprehensive way. The future network-science Mars-NEXT mission addresses several of these objectives and will help to decipher how the key processes might have influenced the habitability on Mars and thus also on other terrestrial planets.