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Mankind has a "50/50" chance of finding evidence of life on the planet.
The British-led 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 analyzed 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 2m (7ft) drill.
ESA's first Mars rover will also carry state-of-the-art lasers that can detect the presence of DNA by analyzing the way molecules of dirt vibrate.
Led by Airbus, a forward testing "ExoFit" team is trialling a prototype vehicle in the Tabernas desert of southern Spain.
Dr. Susanne Schwenzer, the team's astrobiologist, said: "The chances are just about 50/50. We have a very good luck – we are 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. Engineers driving the project will hope it will function far longer.
It may not be smart, but you have microbial life that's the hard step. Evolution then runs its course
Working with a 20-minute delay, Harwell, Oxfordshire, 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 – nicknamed Charlie – from the team's desert remote control center, said: "It's not like driving a car. There is quite a complex software involved and it is extremely slow and methodical. The challenge is the most interesting locations for geologists are the hardest for the rover. Every move is planned out rigorously. "
With a 3.5cm-per-second top speed, the rover has an array of cameras mounted on a mast above it.
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 under light.
The ultimate prize for ExoMars would be proof of DNA, which would amount to proof that life exists on the planet, or ounce did.
But if the craft sends back evidence of other organic molecules, such as amino acids, the ESA scientists will have to try to determine whether they are indigenous to Mars or arrived on the planet via an asteroid.
"We would be, of course, thrilled if we found DNA – that's the proof," said Dr. Schwenzer. "But that assumes that life on Mars is exactly like life … If you're looking for a needle in a haystack, you need to ask what that might be like.
"If we find life that exactly like Earth, we could all be Martians, which is a huge thing in itself. If life is different from what we have on Earth, that means life can come about very often, where we could have other places in our solar system – icy moons, Europa with an ocean underneath, for example – where we could have life .
But that assumes that life on Mars is exactly like life … If you're looking for a needle in a haystack, you need to ask what it might have looked like and how it might have changed over time
"It may not be smart, but you have microbial life that's the hard step. Evolution then runs its course. "
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.
The target location for ExoMars, to be advertised next month, will be a product of the world. Because the Russian-built lander will operate by parachute, the team will ensure the atmosphere is slow enough.
The Doberman, Dobie was philosophical. The viewer of the mock landing site in Spain, who provided a setting for such films, The Bad and The Ugly, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
"It would be a massive achievement … because around 50 percent of all missions to Mars fail – they do not even land," he said. "But what drives this is that human question that transcends science and everything else – are we alone; is there something else out there?
"Even if it's not smart, it's up to the possibility of looking into the sky and thinking there's other stuff out there, it's not just an expanse of nothingness."
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