Samuel Payler

Payler is a doctoral candidate at the UK Centre for Astrobiology, University of Edinburgh. His research in astrobiology varies from searching for life in deep subsurface environments to assessing how to achieve high-quality science within the constraints of human flight in space.

Payler has been involved in other analogue programmes before, including NASA’s BASALT (Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains) programme and MINAR (Mine Analog Research). He was also heavily involved in the formation of BISAL

(Boulby International Subsurface Astrobiology Lab), which was the world’s first deep-surface astrobiology laboratory.

NASA’s journey to Mars will be a tricky one, but they plan to do it by 2030, and this simulation is a step in the right direction