Europe’s Mars Rover To Scan For Microbes

[fear]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p> Biomedical students at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have won a $750,000 NASA grant to design a prototype for a so-called mini mass spectrometer that can probe Mars core samples for evidence of biological molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids, of which DNA is made, for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, scheduled to launch in 2013. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />Link to full story<br /><br />I was wondering when someone would get around to specifically looking for traces of life on Mars. I don’t expect this will produce rock solid results one way or another, but it should at least give a “probably” or a “probably not.” <br /><br />To know for sure if there was (or is) life on Mars we’ll probably have to wait until a return sample is launched back from some future mission several more years down the road.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[voyagerwsh]

Sensor Being Developed to Check for Life on Mars<br /><br /><br />Yes, we need more astrobiological in situ rovers on top of numberous geological orbitors and rovers that NASA/ESA have sent to Mars. This ExoMars rover should be the long waiting program of search for life on Mars since the Viking missions some 30 years ago.