The 60 kg Beagle 2 lander for ESA's 2003 Mars Express mission will be described. Beagle 2 will search for organic material on and below the surface of Mars in addition to a study of the inorganic chemistry and mineralogy of the landing site. The lander will utilize a mechanical mole and grinder to obtain samples from below the surface, under rocks, and inside rocks. Such samples will be returned to the lander for detailed analysis. Analysis will include examination of samples and rocks and soils with an optical microscope and X-ray Spectrometer and Mossbauer Spectrometers as well as a search for organics and a measurement of their isotopic composition. The lander systems design as well as the experiment configuration will be described along with the status of the project.

A fluorescence microscopic system has been developing in order to detect living microorganisms, the past microorganisms and organic compounds on Mars, Europe and/or in an extreme environmental condition on Earth. Special fluorescent dyes which have affinity for enzymes, nucleic acids or cell membranes, out of a number of fluorescent dyes, have been selected for identifying microorganisms in soil samples on Mars. It is shown that a single microorganism in soil sample as well as a lump of organic matter can be detected by the present method. In order to decide whether the soil samples at the drilling point are qualified to further fluorescent analysis with staining, the reflecting light from the bottom surface of drilling holes will be measured through optical fibers without the use of fluorescent dyes. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or aggregates of bacteria were clearly visualized by measuring the spectrum of the reflecting light without fluorescent dyes.

Recently, Jet Propulsion Laboratory has invented and developed a miniature optical microscope, microscope-on-chip using micro-channel and solid state image sensors. It is lightweight, low-power, fast speed instrument, it has no image data, does not need focus adjustment, and the total mass is less than 100 g. A prototype has been built and demonstrated at JPL.

Graphites from sedimentary, metamorphic and even magmatic rocks were proved to be very interesting objects for study of fossil bacterial communities and other microorganisms. One of these objects are the graphites of the Botogol Deposit confined to the Botogol Syenite Massif. The Botogol graphites deposit is commonly believed to be a classic example of a deposit of magmatic type. However, the different viewpoints on the deposits genesis do exist. According to one of them, the Botogol graphites were originated after the metamorphism of the organic matter of the sedimentary rocks. Other speculations claim, that the carbon was recovered from carbonates or it was crystallized from magma.

The article deals with paleomicrobiological analyses of litified remnants of microbial organisms from carbon hondrites of Murchison, Efremovka and Alliende meteorites as well as general analyses of mineral composition of carbon meteorites. On the basis of this analyses the assumption is made that the cyanobacterial community (mat) from hydrothermal areas of active volcanic zone was most likely to be the ancient ecological system on space objects. It has been demonstrated that hydrothermal process has been exerting great influence on transformation of primary hyperacidites mineral matrix and on biogenic carbon substance. The article presents the results of the analyses of microphotos of lunar regolith particles published earlier, which confirmed that lunar rock contains fossilized remnants of microbial organisms, that most probably had been functioning in hydrothermal springs.

Microorganisms of the permafrost, glaciers, and polar ice sheets of planet Earth provide analogs for microbial life forms that may be encountered on ice or permafrost of Mars, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede, or even asteroids or comets. Most bodies of our Solar System are frozen worlds. The microbiota of the terrestrial cryosphere help establish the thermal and temporal limitations of life on Earth and provide clues to of where and how we should search for evidence of life elsewhere in the Cosmos. Consequently, these life forms are relevant to Astrobiology. Cryopreserved microorganisms can remain viable (in deep anabiosis) in permafrost and ice for millions of years and may contain intact ancient DNA, lipids, enzymes, proteins and genes. Some microorganisms carry out metabolic processes in water films and brine, acidic, or alkaline channels in permafrost or ice at temperature far below 0 C. Complex microbial ecosystems may inhabit snow, ice-bubbles, and cryoconite holes on glaciers and the polar caps. At the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center we employed the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope to study the morphology, ultra- microstructure and chemical composition of microorganisms in-situ in ancient permafrost and ice. In this paper we present images of cryopreserved microorganisms from deep ice cores above Lake Vostok and thermokarst ponds of the Fox Tunnel of Alaska.

Inorganic precipitation processes are capable of producing a wide range of morphological outputs. This range includes shapes with both crystallographic and non-crystallographic symmetry elements. Among the latter, morphologies that mimic primitive living organisms are easily obtained under different physico-chemical conditions including those that are geochemically plausible. The application of this information to the problem of deciphering primitive life on the early Earth and Mars is discussed. It is concluded that morphology cannot be used unambiguously as a tool for primitive life detection.

For the last few years there have been a lot of publications in geological literature on the problem of formation of morphologically unique fine fibrous kerites, found in one of the objects of kamera pegmatites of Volyn (1800 - 1750 mln. years). According to the opinion of all researchers who deal with them, they are an excellent example of a biogenic, highly constructive carbon substance. The meeting of objectives set was carried out by means of the study of ultra-thin section and replicas of kerite cryofractures under high resolution electronic microscope. The similarity of fine structured fibrous kerite of Volyn (KV) to prokaryotic microorganisms is proved by availability in KV of clearly exposed cellular ultrastructures: multilayered cell wall, cross septa and cytoplasmatic membrane and `intracytoplasmic' inclusions. Fatty acids obtained from kerites contain a number of components typical of prokaryotic microbial community. Suggestions were made on the formation of fibrous Volyn's kerites as a result of mummification of the cyanobacterial mat components from freshwater thermal spring of moderate temperature. Thus, the detailed fine structure of microfossils and their fatty acid composition can be used to support evidence of biogenic origin of the bacteriomorphic elements in paleo- and space objects.

Carbon spheres and tubes form readily under a variety of physical-chemical conditions. They can mimic elementary life forms as well as fossilized organisms. However, they may still be connected to living systems either as proto- structures for future life or as rudimentary forms of past life. This paper suggests that carbon frameworks allow by virtue of their scaffolding properties the self-assembly to expanded structures, eventually leading to biosystems such as simple viruses and other microorganisms. This development is not limited to terrestrial environments, although solvents molecules such as water and coordinating metal ions are essential vehicles for morphogenesis.

Nanobacteria are the smallest cell-walled bacteria, only recently discovered in human and cow blood and in commercial cell culture serum. Nanobacteria do show several extreme properties, such as growth in over 5% sodium chloride, small size, very slow growth rate and ability to survive under unfavorable conditions, including lack of nutrients, boiling temperature, high pressure and 1.5 Mrad dose of gamma irradiation. Environmental changes can cause drastic changes in their unit size: under unfavorable conditions they form very large multicellular units. Yet, they can release elementary particles, some of which are less than 100 nm in size, smaller than many viruses. Although metabolic rates of nanobacteria are very slow, they can produce carbonate apatite on their cell envelop mineralizing rapidly most of the available calcium and phosphate. Nanobacteria belong to, or may be ancestors of, alpha-2 subgroup of Proteobacteria. They may still partially rely on primordial life-strategies, where minerals and metal atoms associated to membranes, played catalytic and structural roles reducing the number of enzymes and structural proteins needed for life. Simple metabolic pathways apparently only compatible with life in very small cells, may support the 10,000-fold slower growth rate of nanobacteria, as compared to the common bacteria. Simplistic life-strategy may also explain the endurability of this life-form in extreme environmental conditions.

Nanobacteria are novel microorganisms recently isolated from fetal bovine serum and blood of cows and humans. These coccoid, gram negative bacteria in alpha-2 subgroup of Proteobacteria grow slowly under mammalian cell culture conditions but not in common media for microbes. Now we have found two different kinds of culture supplement preparations that improve their growth and make them culturable in the classical sense. These are supernatant fractions of conditioned media obtained from 1 - 3 months old nanobacteria cultures and from about a 2 weeks old Bacillus species culture. Both improved multiplication and particle yields and the latter increased their resistance to gentamicin. Nanobacteria cultured with any of the methods shared similar immunological property, structure and protein pattern. The growth supporting factors were heat-stabile and nondialyzable, and dialysis improved the growth promoting action. Nanobacteria formed stony colonies in a bacteriological medium supplemented with the growth factors. This is an implication that nanobacterial growth is influenced by pre-existing bacterial flora.

The sample of the Mighei carbonaceous chondrite given for study by the Meteorites Committee of the Russian Academy of Sciences was analyzed by the authors using the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The Mighei sample was analyzed by in-situ study of freshly fractured surface of the meteorite using magnifications in the 2,000 to 20,000X ranges. The chemical composition of the specimen was evaluated using Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy. The following elements are typical: Mg, Si, Fe, N. However, it is noteworthy that Mighei has a high content of Sulfur, which is uncommon for carbonaceous chondrites. Probably the Sulfur is enclosed in troilite, but we suspect that there is also pure Sulfur present as well.

Mars shows a variety of landscapes from the poles towards the equators which can be easily compared with terrestrial landscapes. The sequence of images in the range from the poles till equator is also similar to the sequence which is found on Planet Earth i.e. the fluviatile landscapes of the equatorial belts, the warm desertic region with mesas at about 30 degree(s) latitude, complex landscapes of the middle latitudinal belt, polygonal structured ground and pingo-like forms towards the poles and finally the polar ice caps. The features in all these areas are so similar in form and range of occurrence that it leaves no doubt that origin of the landscapes Mars could be very likely the same as on Planet Earth. This would also demonstrate that most of these landscape forms developed under the agis of water under different types of its possible occurrence: fluvial, permafrost, erosional, coastal, etc. besides the fact that it furthermore proves that the polar-caps are really built by snow, ice and glaciers. A series of erosional gullies on Mars furthermore offered sediment sequences which no doubt show a cyclic repetitive series of sedimentation layers. The latter cyclic sediment series is generally found with sequences in the earth deposits as well and have been suitable for computation. On earth they definitely show cycles of cold/drought periods interfering with warm/wet periods. This would infer that the climatic global changes may have existed on Mars as well.

The Method of Sediment and Soil Stratigraphic Geological Dating based on the Time-Stratigraphic Stability of the occurrence of fossil soils and interfering sediments in a given time series of the recent deposits on Earth (Pleistocene and Holocene), revealed in a first attempt the time record of geosoils and other events such as major gravel beds, for a number of Quaternary Sediments. Time Series such as eolian loess deposits of the loess plateau in China at Huangling and Jiacun localities at the eastern end, and of the loess plateau in Belgium at Waret-Grand Sart and Tongrinne-Le Docq borehole logs, at the western end of the Global Trans Eurasiatic loess belt served as a basis of the ExSpect-Matlab Cyclicity Calculation Method. It must be understood hereby that mathematical treatment of the deposits is not possible if the chosen parameters are not stratigraphically secured either by radiometric dating or by means of classical relative geological chronostratigraphic dating. The latter method offers indeed, the possibility of geological correlation and thus to cross check the level of significance of the stratigraphic position of e.g. fossil (geo-) soils found by computation.

A moss plant dating as much as 40,000 years old was collected from the permafrost of the Kolyma Lowlands of Northeastern Siberia. The plant tissue was revived and cultured for the extraction of its genomic DNA. Using the polymerase chain reaction technique, the 18S ribosomal RNA gene was cloned and its sequence studied. Comparative sequence analysis of the cloned ribosomal DNA to other known 18S RNA showed very high sequence identity and was revealed to be closest to the moss specie, Aulacomnium turgidum. The results of this study also show the ability of biological organisms to rest dormant in deep frozen environments where they can be revived and cultured under favorable conditions. This is significant in the notion that celestial icy bodies can be media to preserve biological function and genetic material during long term storage or transport.

Institute of Microbiology RAS have carried out during several years the microbiological investigations at the Central Antarctic in the region of Vostok station. The special technics of aseptic sampling from ice sheet have been used.

Extensive microbiological studies carried out at Vostok Station, Antarctica over the past several years have revealed a complex assemblage of well preserved microbial cells. The Antarctic ice sheet provides an ideal model for the investigation of the types of microbial forms and the state of preservation that may be expected after long term preservation in ice.

One of the goals of the DeepIce Science and Technology Center (one of 16 finalists but not one of the 5 selected by NSF) would have been to locate a subglacial lake close to the South Pole and to search for life in lake water and sediment, as well as in ice above the lake. Radar data obtained in December 1998 show evidence for a lake approximately 10 km from the South Pole. We would like to search for microbes in deep ice above the lake, using filtration, cultivation, microscopy and other techniques, and molecular analysis with PCR amplification. To search for living microbes, we would scan thick sections microscopically for micrometer-size motile organisms living in acid-rich liquid veins in polycrystalline ice. Ultimately we would use sterile drilling to recover lake water and sediment in which to search for life.

The two Viking missions of the 1970's are a testimony to the success of our technological capability when it is driven by consuming curiosity and sense of adventure. In the case of Viking, the national spirit in the United States supported an assemblage of equally spirited expertise within NASA to determine if life existed on Mars, and within the defined science of those missions to establish if conditions on Mars might support life. The technological successes of Viking led to a confusion of interpretations for the issue of life on Mars. This confusion in turn led to polarities in the scientific community and a subsequent resting period of some years for the enthusiasm required to support continued investigation of the potential existence of life on Mars, and indeed elsewhere in our solar system.

In natural ecosystems, bacteria, unicellular algae, filamentous and yeast-like fungi are often organized in thin films attached to or entrenched in substrata such as surfaces of solid rocks, minerals or larger organisms. Frequently the formation of a biofilm is the most successful survival strategy. Especially within endolithic biofilms micro-organisms actively create a safe niche to avoid extreme and thus harmful environmental conditions such as electromagnetic radiation, mechanical abrasion, water and temperature stress and hazardous chemical agents. Exemplary survival strategies are presented for bacteria, ascomycetes and green algae. On substrata without organic carbon sources, biofilms are composed of chemolithotrophic or phototrophic primary producers and heterotrophic organisms (including destruents).

I suggest an idea of primitive life creation on protocomets with sizes 100 m to 100 km at very early stages (0.1 to 100 Myr) after our Supernova explosion 4.56 Gyr before present. Dust condensation in supernova remnants develops in conditions of decreasing gas temperature. After it crosses the level of 273 K, initial comets become rich in water and organic compounds. Their surface temperature is governed by equilibrium between heat production by radioactivity and thermal radiation from the surface. (The sun began to contribute to the thermal balance only at 50 - 100 Myr). Main energy contribution at this stage is produced by the following isotopes (decay time in Myr in brackets): ⁴¹Ca(0.14), ⁶⁰Fe(0.30), ²⁶Al(0.72), ⁵³Mn(3.70).

Theme of the report is the putting of a question about existence prebiotic conditions, i.e, applicable atmospheric composition and energy sources, in particular of electric discharges, for synthesis prebiological systems in cometary atmosphere. In this work are discussed the processes leading to separation of charges in cometary atmosphere, they're accruing and subsequent discharges are occur, the estimation of these charges is made. It is supposed that from a surface of flying away corpuscles and crystals of ice there is a sublimation of gas and the charging of a surface of corpuscles. In a result in near-surface layer of a cometary atmosphere the charged layer is formed. The field intensity between layer and surface of a comet reaches 500 V/m, that it is enough for development of discharge similar to a lightning in high layers Earth's atmosphere. The estimation of energy freed at lightning's discharge in an atmosphere of a comet is made. It is offered to detect lightning's over radio emission, the intensity of this radio emission is evaluated. The role of a surface of a cometary nucleus and large corpuscles is considered as a skeleton for formation of prebiological systems.

The question of the existence of extraterrestrial life is of great scientific interest. Presently we have knowledge of life only on the Earth that appears to have a single and unique biogenesis. Arguments are made that it is more likely that the living process exists throughout the cosmos, than that the Earth is the only inhabited planet.

The Graded Autocatalysis Replication Domain (GARD) model described here depicts an early primordial scenario, prior to the emergence of biopolymers, such as RNA or proteins. The model describes, with the help of statistical chemistry computer simulations, a collection of organic molecular species capable of rudimentary selection and evolution. The GARD model provides a rigorous kinetic analysis of simple sets of chemicals that manifest mutual catalysis. It is shown that catalytic closure can sustain self replication up to a critical dilution rate, related to the extent of mutual catalysis. The capacity for self replication in a mutually catalytic set is shown to be a graded property, quantitated by a critical parameter (lambda) _ci. GARD could be a simple model for a primordial scenario, in which replication and catalysis are performed by the same set of molecules.