Ocean World Microhabitats 101 - Targeting and Life Detection Techniques

Explore the intricacies of ocean world microhabitats in this informative talk by Mike Malaska from JPL. Delve into the search for life in ocean worlds, focusing on the spatial distribution of life in deep ice habitats and detection methods. Examine the characteristics of deep ice in solar system ocean worlds, including ice convection in larger bodies. Learn about analog ocean world environments with microhabitats and the ultrasmall nature of deep ice microbes. Discover the numerous microhabitats present in ice and understand the microhabitat targeting workflow, which involves detection, acquisition, and analysis. Gain insights into microhabitat detection techniques, with a focus on fluorescence for spot detection. Investigate the concept of excision diameter in sample collection and its relationship to feature diameter. Acquire valuable knowledge about drilling and melting techniques for target acquisition in ocean world exploration.

Intro
Ocean World Microhabitats 101
The search for life in the Ocean Worlds What is the spatial distribution of life in the Deep Ice habitats of Ocean Worlds? How do we look for it?
Deep Ice in the Solar System Ocean Worlds have very deep ice; the largest have ice convection
Deep Ice will be the first habitable environment encountered in Ocean World exploration
Analog Ocean World environments with microhabitats
Comparison of cell sizes Deep Ice microbes are ultrasmall
Many many many microhabitats in ice
Microhabitat targeting workflow Detect acquire analyze
First step: Microhabitat Detection Fluorescence is good technique for spot detection
Excision diameter How do we drill out a target sample?
Excision diameter not same as feature diameter Excision diameter is diameter needed to melt drill and acquire target