The Habitability Lab

In the HabLab we combine our interests and expertise to work on understanding the habitability potential of planetary bodies within and outside our Solar System, especially the possibility of life existing on the terrestrial planets and icy moons of our local neighbourhood. We are interested in where simple life may be hiding in the Solar System today and in the past, how we may be able to detect signs of its existence and how its ‘biosignatures’ are preserved within geological materials. Through this we hope to understand how life may first have arisen on the Earth and therefore its potential to have also begun on other planetary bodies.

It is here that we are developing techniques and technologies for biosignature detection, and developing the use of vibrational spectroscopy in astrobiological investigations. We are running a number of projects using Vis-NIR-MIR spectroscopy to identify biological materials within geological substrates; to study their degree of preservation over geological time within the most environmentally extreme habitats on Earth.

We combine experimental simulations, fieldwork, and spectroscopic analyses, blending geological and biological methods, to better enable biosignature detection within terrestrial and planetary materials, and even within the atmospheres of exoplanets. We are not picky about which geological materials and planetary bodies we work on and are exploring the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Europa, Enceladus and Titan as well as studying organics within space materials such as meteorites, ices, and the interstellar medium itself. We are also starting to explore the link between the magnetosphere, ionosphere, atmosphere and surface environments on planets to try and identify the impacts on habitability.

The HabLab and MSSL Planetary Group as a whole is actively involved in a number of past, current and future space missions, in particular the 2028 ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission and the Canadian Lunar Rover mission. We are fascinated by the human factors of space exploration and the preparations needed for us to visit and ultimately live in space, especially for the Moon and Mars. We are also very interested in the training that goes into future space missions and have worked on numerous analogue mission simulations such as the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Lunar Analogue Mission: "Lunar Sample Return from the South Pole–Aiken Basin” and the NASA “Hi-SEAS” missions.
Finally we are using in-situ data from years of field campaigns combined with orbital data from both Earth and Mars to study the impacts of changing environmental conditions on habitability.

Our Setup

The HabLab is equipped with:

• Agilent 4300 Fourier Transform IR (FTIR) instrument - MIR range (Field capable).
• StellarNet Dual-Detector Super Range (DSR) spectrometer systems – Vis NIR (Field capable).
• Linkam THMS350V cryo vacuum stage.
• Digital transmitted and reflected light microscope.

We welcome enquiries about collaborations to utilise any of our equipment in research projects. Please contact the HabLab PI Dr Louisa Preston at l.preston@ucl.ac.uk to discuss your ideas.

Resources:

Introduction to Planetary Science:
What is Planetary Science?
Seminar Series

Head of Planetary Science:
Dr Louisa Preston
l.preston@ucl.ac.uk