NASA's Instrument For Detecting Life On Mars

Roland Piquepaille writes "With the financial help of NASA, American and European researchers have developed a new sensor to check for life on Mars. It should also be able to determine if traces of life's molecular building blocks have been produced by anything that was once alive. The device has been tested in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It should be part of the science payload for the ExoMars rover planned for launch in 2013."

Comments

I'm just wondering if NASA will rent this out

[zappepcs]

so we can take turns strolling it through the marketing department to detect if life was ever there... oh wait, that would be 'intelligent life'

never mind

Is this the same as the UK sun detector?

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Many years ago ETI magazine has a circuit for a UK sunlight detector The output was claimed to go to 5 volts if sunshine was likely in the UK. If you looked at the circuit carefully, it was just a dead short that could only ever produce 0 volts.

This device was also claimed to work as a Sahara rain detector.

Perhaps NASA could use one as a Life On Mars detector too.

Meanwhile beneath the surface of Mars...

[Mogster]

The European Space Agency plans for the ExoMars rover to grind samples of Martian soil to fine powder and deliver them to a suite of analytical instruments, including Urey, that will search for signs of life. Each sample will be a spoonful of material dug from underground by a robotic drill. Meanwhile beneath the surface of Mars...

"This is an emergency broadcast by the MBC. The city of Xrg'kht is being evacuted due to a strange mechanical object that has appeared from above. Citizens in it's path are being sucked into it and ground into dust. We urge everyone not to panic and quickly make your way to the outskirts of the city where you will be transported to safety. Message repeats... This is an ..."

ESA providing transport?

[MichaelSmith]

The cruise phase and orbiter operations sound quite a bit like Cassini, so I have a good feeling about that. But the Europeans have never landed a vehicle on Mars. The Russians pulled it off once or twice but NASA is the only organisation which could deliver a payload to the surface with any certanty.

I would be happier to see the science payload come from the ESA, and the vehicle from NASA. Seems a lot safer that way.

Re:ESA providing transport?

[SeaDour]

You're absolutely right, NASA has never screwed up a Mars probe mission. Ever.

So,

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we now know whether there was life in the Atacama Desert in Chile?

Re:If you fail on Earth, try another planet

[khallow]

Life has been defined. And it's probably going to be redefined when we find extraterrestrial life.

Life on Mars?

[moosesocks]

Why don't we just send David Bowie?

Re:Heh

[MichaelSmith]

that totals up to 0 life

Actually Mars is a lot like Antarctica. The air temperature is sometimes above zero C, but mostly below.

Never the less, life survives there. At one stage one of the experiments which flew to mars on Viking was tried out in Antarctia and failed to detect life.