Solar-driven chemical energy source for a Martian biota.

Microorganisms deep in the Martian soil could derive energy indirectly from the sun via chemical reactions involving atmospheric products of the solar ultraviolet flux. The Viking discovery of a chemically uniform regolith which, though poor in organics, is rich in sulfur-containing compounds suggests reaction sequences in which sulfur is recycled through reduced and oxidized states by biologically catalyzed reactions with photochemically-produced atmospheric constituents. One candidate reaction, reduction of soil ssufate minerals by molecular hydrogen, is already exploited on earth by bacteria of the ubiquitous and tenacious Desulfovibrio genus.