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Title: Special Session Symposium--Astropedology and Space Exploration: Synergies between Soil Science and Planetary Science
Lead Community Sponsor:
Cosponsor: SSSA Division: Soil Chemistry, SSSA Division: Pedology, SSSA Division: Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition, SSSA Division: Soil Biology and Biochemistry
Community Cosponsor:
Format: Oral Symposium
Keywords: Astropedology, Planetary Science, Soil Science and Space agriculture
Session Description: The nature of soils on celestial bodies beyond the Earth is a fast growing area of interest. Decades of space exploration have gathered significant surface geochemical/mineralogical information on the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets in our solar system. These celestial bodies consist of rocky, unconsolidated, and/or icy materials on their surfaces that show the effects of climate, relief, parent material, and time (i.e., four of the five soil-forming factors, with the possible exception of biota). The unconsolidated materials can be considered soils because they are physically and/or chemically weathered and often show evidence of aggregation/horizonation. This planetary view of soils has the following benefits: A) Treating soils as recorders of environmental history on celestial bodies so that past environmental changes may be decoded through the investigation of soils, along with bedrock and other environmental components; B) Searching for evidence of extinct or extant microbiology by utilizing terrestrial soil science knowledge, including signs of microbial life in soils and the role of biota in weathering and soil evolution; and C) Guide the development of closed-loop life support systems for future astronaut tended outposts that utilize planetary soils as building materials and as a media for growing plants for food, recycling air/water, and managing human waste. This session will cover the following: 1) Geochemical/mineralogical understanding of surface materials on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and terrestrial analogs, and how such knowledge informs about processes that formed these surfaces, 2) Assessing the microbial habitability and evidence for extinct or extant life in these surfaces, and 3) Evaluating the suitability of these surface materials as possible resources for supporting human missions (e.g., crop growth for food, recycling air/water, building materials).