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The Astrobiology Field Laboratory (AFL) (also Mars Astrobiology Field Laboratory or MAFL) was a proposed NASA unmanned spacecraft that would have conducted a robotic search for life on Mars. This proposed mission, which was not funded, would have landed a rover on Mars in 2016 and explore a site for habitat. Examples of such sites are an active or extinct hydrothermal deposit, a dry lake or a specific polar site. Had it been funded, the rover was to be built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, based upon the Mars Science Laboratory rover design, it would have carried astrobiology-oriented instruments, and ideally, a core drill. The original plans called for a launch in 2016, however, budgetary constraints caused funding cuts.〔 *(NASA experts scale back moon and Mars plans in face of Obama funding cut fears ) *(Set sights on Mars, moon pioneers urge ) *(Nasa scales back Moon and Mars plans in face of Obama funding cut fears )〕 ==Mission== The rover could have been the first mission since the Viking program landers of the 1970s to specifically look for the chemistry associated with life (biosignatures), such as carbon-based compounds along with molecules involving both sulfur and nitrogen. The mission strategy was to search for habitable zones by "following the water" and "finding the carbon."〔 In particular, it was to conduct detailed analysis of geologic environments identified by the 2012 Mars Science Laboratory as being conducive to life on Mars and biosignatures, past and present. Such environments might include fine-grained sedimentary layers, hot spring mineral deposits, icy layers near the poles, or sites such as gullies where liquid water once flowed or may continue to seep into soils from melting ice packs. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Astrobiology Field Laboratory」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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