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Mankind has a "50/50" chance of finding evidence of life on the planet.
The team conducts trials for the ExoMars robot said plans to excavate deep below the Martian surface for the first time dramatically improved the odds of discovering past or present extraterrestrial life.
Previous missions have mainly badyzed surface rocks and topsoil. However, scientists believe the Red Planet's thin atmosphere and corresponding intense radiation mean all but deeply hidden evidence of life will have been eradicated.
By contrast, a European Space Agency (ESA) craft, due to launch in 2020 and arrives the following year, will be fitted with a two-meter drill.
ESA's first Mars rover will also carry state-of-the-art lasers that can detect the presence of DNA by badyzing the way molecules of dirt vibrate.
Dr. Susanne Schwenzer, the team's astrobiologist, said: "The chances are just about 50/50 … We're going to a very, very interesting spot."
Dr. Ben Dobke, the ExoFit project director, said: "If you're going to find microbial evidence of life, it's probably underneath the surface."
Once on Mars, the solar-powered rover will attempt to navigate the rocky surface, excavate soil and other observations for a minimum of 90 days.
Working with a 20-minute delay, Harwell, Oxfordshire, England, ESA will attempt to position the rover towards the edge of the land, to obtain the best samples.
Mark Shilton, the Airbus engineer commanding the prototype rover, said: "It's a very difficult and complex way of dealing with software and it's extremely slow and methodical. for the rover. "
With a 3.5cm-per-second top speed, the rover has an array of cameras mounted on a mast above it, while it also has ground-penetrating radar.
Among the most sophisticated of the instruments is the RAMAN laser spectrometer, a technology never before feels to Mars, that can determine the chemical bonds of molecules by the way they move.
The ultimate prize for ExoMars would be proof of DNA, which would amount to proof that life exists on the Red Planet, or ounce did.
But if it sends back evidence of other organic molecules, the ESA scientists will have to try to determine whether they are indigenous to Mars or arrived via an asteroid.
Blasting off from Earth around the same time in 2020 will be a rival Nasa mission, named March 2020.
Unlike ExoMars, the US probe will have a potential operating period of years because it will be powered by a nuclear cell. It will also carry a drill to excavate soil to be transported back to Earth by a future ESA-NASA March "sample-return" mission.
Irish Independent
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