Sensor Web for In Situ Exploration of Gaseous Biosignatures. Gayathri Chandrasekaran

What is a Sensor Web Network of Wireless intra- communicating sensor pods. Provides spatio-temporal data in a form consistent with that needed for environmental monitoring and in-situ exploration Has few Prime nodes - which are capable of uploading the collected data in the web.

Need for an In-situ instrument Remote Sensing is inadequate because it measures over large atmospheric columns Difficult to detect low concentration of gases In-situ instrument at the surface-atmosphere interface can provide the type and quality of measurements Intrinsic stochastic nature of Biosignatures requires multiple redundant measurements In-situ sensors can also monitor local meteorological condition.

Pods can be dropped from airplane Fired from a central point to surround the base station Dropped out from rover Pods can be attached to central craft via a fiber optic link ( Wide bandwidth Communication) Deployment

Gaseous Bio Signature - Motivation NASA’s Project – To probe planets for gases driven out by biological activity Challenge- How do we know which gases would be biogenic in other planets? Solution- A detailed modeling and a Network of measurements are needed to apply data over spatial and temporal scales.

Experimental Setup Microbial Mats in Baja California Pods scattered over an area of 100*100sq.m Prime nodes will be stationed at the home base campsites Sensing range of each pod – 400m Results – Unknown ! Under experimental stage.