The MASE (Mars Analogues for space exploration) project intends to gain deeper insights into the habitability of Mars by searching for anaerobic extremophiles in Mars analogue environments on Earth like the cold sulfidic springs in Germany, the deep-subsurface salt mine in UK, the iron-rich Rio Tinto and the cold acidic lake Graenavatn in lceland. From the latter, the MASE team isolated a Yersinia sp. strain.
The surface of Mars is known to host deposits of magnesium and iron sulfates, suggesting that liquid water on that planet might contain high concentrations of sulfates. Halites have also been identified. Therefore, of significance to astrobiology and understanding the habitability of Mars is to understand the microbial response to sulfate and chloride salt exposure in combination with the ubiquitous ionizing radiation in the near-surface of Mars
