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Important Deadlines and News

Upcoming deadlines / important events
Application deadline: 2023-04-15
ISSI Bern: Discipline Scientist in Planetary Sciences

Application deadline: 2023-04-10
Post-doctoral Researcher in Astrochemistry/Geochemistry at the University Aix-Marseille, PIIM laboratory; Marseille, France

Registration deadline: 2023-03-31
Europlanet WorkshopSeries: Rocks from Space and Planetary Defence
Announcement of opportunity for membership of the Science Strategy Teams of the JAXA Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) Mission
Through this Announcement of Opportunity (AO) the European Space Agency (ESA) solicits proposals for membership of the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission Science Strategy Teams.
The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is a JAXA-led mission that will fly to Mars orbit to investigate Phobos and Deimos, and will sample > 10 g of material from the surface of Phobos for return to Earth for scientific analysis.
The MMX mission is scheduled for launch in September 2024.

Proposals in PDF format must be submitted using the submission form linked below, before the deadline of 22 March 2023, 12:00 (noon) CET.

Added 5 Mar 2023
Join the IAF-CSA Space Universities CubeSat Challenge 2.0 and win a free launch of a CubeSat!
The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and its Space University Administrative Committee (SUAC) in cooperation with the Chinese Society of Astronautics (CSA) are pleased to announce the second edition of the Space Universities CubeSat Challenge (SUCC 2.0) for a Free Launch of a CubeSat aboard a Chinese launcher and deployment from Chinese Space Station!

Applications must be submitted to IAF at award@iafastro.org by 15 June 2023 (documents must be in English).

Added 5 Mar 2023
EANA 2023 Conference

This is the first regular, in-person EANA meeting after the Covid-19 pandemic. And after 20 years we meet again in Madrid, an international city with a fascinating interesting history and glamour. This workshop will connect the European Astrobiology community and the Space community (technical and scientific fields), with a vivid and interactive programme for 3 and a half days, from 19th to 22nd September 2023.

Added 17 Dec 2022
EANA Special Issue is now published
Special Issue: Open Questions and Next Steps in Astrobiology in Europe - Celebrating 20 Years of EANA



Added 25 Oct 2022
Statement of Support for Ukraine
The EANA community deeply deplores the present war in the Ukraine and offers its heartfelt moral support to the Ukrainian people. We are lucky to work in a world where science transcends frontiers and brings scientists from different countries together for peaceful research. We reach out also to our Russian colleagues who are as negatively influenced by these events as we Europeans (and, in general, the international community). We therefore call on all scientists and EANA members to support the Ukrainian people, our colleagues in the east, and free science, hoping for a rapid return to peaceful conditions on our shared continent.



Please also see the statement published by the Europlanet Society, with whom we will jointly organize our annual meeting (see EANA@EPSC2022) this year, with links to different European support schemes for our Ukrainian colleagues and friends.

Added 3 Mar 2022

Monthly research highlight (-> More highlights)

Baqué et al. (2022): Biosignature stability in space enables their use for life detection on Mars

Science Advances 2022, 8(36), 12 p., DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abn7412

Link to open access paper

Two rover missions to Mars aim to detect biomolecules as a sign of extinct or extant life with, among other instruments, Raman spectrometers. However, there are many unknowns about the stability of Raman-detectable biomolecules in the martian environment, clouding the interpretation of the results. To quantify Raman-detectable biomolecule stability, we exposed seven biomolecules for 469 days to a simulated martian environment outside the International Space Station. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) strongly changed the Raman spectra signals, but only minor change was observed when samples were shielded from UVR. These findings provide support for Mars mission operations searching for biosignatures in the subsurface. This experiment demonstrates the detectability of biomolecules by Raman spectroscopy in Mars regolith analogs after space exposure and lays the groundwork for a consolidated space-proven database of spectroscopy biosignatures in targeted environments.
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