tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/exomars-25754/articlesExoMars – The Conversation2022-05-26T12:58:03Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839272022-05-26T12:58:03Z2022-05-26T12:58:03ZOur Mars rover mission was suspended because of the Ukraine war – here’s what we’re hoping for next<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465514/original/file-20220526-23-yco451.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2880%2C1784&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Oxia Planum on Mars – where the rover was set to land.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nasa</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just a few months ago, we were confidently expecting to launch our rover, Rosalind Franklin, to Mars in September as part of the ExoMars mission, a collaboration between Europe and Russia. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/decades-of-attempts-show-how-hard-it-is-to-land-on-mars-heres-how-we-plan-to-succeed-in-2021-69734">landing was planned</a> for June 2023. Everything was ready: the rover, the operations team and the eager scientists. </p>
<p>The final preparations started in February 21, with part of our team heading to Turin, Italy, to carry out the final alignment and calibration tests. All was going well, though some of the team were slightly delayed by Storm Eunice in the UK. Three days later, they had nevertheless finished the work – leaving some wonderful data, which would help us decide where Rosalind would drill on Mars. The industry team started packing the rover, which was ready to be shipped to the launch site. </p>
<p>Then, a storm far more powerful and tragic than Eunice descended on Ukraine: Russia’s invasion. The situation developed in the next days and weeks, leading to a series of emergency meetings. On March 17, the European Space Agency (Esa)‘s council and member states decided to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60782932">suspend our mission</a>. We won’t know for sure what happens next until a study by Esa and industry partners reports back in July – but there are causes for optimism.</p>
<p>The Rosalind Franklin rover is unique among all the rovers planned for Mars. It can drill deeper than any before it – up to 2 metres below the harsh surface. This is important as the subsurface is protected from harmful radiation, and could therefore contain signs of past or present life.</p>
<p>Rosalind’s instruments include our PanCam, which is a camera that will do geology and atmospheric science on Mars – complemented by the other cameras and a sub-surface sounding radar. Rosalind will also collect pristine samples from below the surface which will be deposited in the “analytical drawer”, where three instruments will do mineralogy and search for signs of life. </p>
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<img alt="Image of the ExoMars rover on top of landing platform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465513/original/file-20220526-13-6o194p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465513/original/file-20220526-13-6o194p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465513/original/file-20220526-13-6o194p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465513/original/file-20220526-13-6o194p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465513/original/file-20220526-13-6o194p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465513/original/file-20220526-13-6o194p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465513/original/file-20220526-13-6o194p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">ExoMars rover on top of landing platform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thales Alenia Space/ESA</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Some 3.8 billion years ago, at the same time as life was emerging on Earth, Mars was habitable too. There is evidence from orbiters and landers of water on the surface then – there would have been clouds, rain and a thick atmosphere. There was also a global protective magnetic field, and volcanos. This means Mars essentially had all the right ingredients for life – carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. If life emerged there like it did on Earth, we were on a track to find it. </p>
<p>The climate <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-did-mars-lose-its-habitable-climate-the-answer-is-blowing-in-the-solar-wind-50258">has changed significantly</a> since Mars lost its magnetic field 3.8 billion years ago, though. The planet is now is dry, cold, has a thin atmosphere and a surface hostile for life. But below the surface, some living species may have survived, or remains of them could be conserved.</p>
<p>Other missions to Mars are looking for life too. The amazing Nasa Perseverance rover <a href="https://theconversation.com/mars-perseverance-rover-set-for-nail-biting-landing-heres-the-rocket-science-154886">landed in February 2021</a>. Its scientists are partly guided by images from a Nasa helicopter on the planet, called Ingenuity, and it recently reached an ancient river delta. </p>
<p>Perseverance is collecting samples from Jezero crater, ready to be brought back to powerful labs on Earth by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/plan-to-bring-back-rocks-from-mars-is-our-best-bet-for-finding-clues-of-past-life-95797">Mars sample return missions</a>. The results will hopefully complement those from Rosalind Franklin – which will examine deeper samples from a different and slightly older site, Oxia Planum, where there is also abundant evidence of a watery past.</p>
<h2>Options for Rosalind</h2>
<p>Russia was meant to help launch Rosalind Franklin on one of its rockets. While a European-built spacecraft would then take it to Mars, a Russian-built platform would again be needed to land it. Russia was also meant to provide radioactive heaters to keep the batteries of the rover warm in the cold Martian nights.</p>
<p>Now, Esa is looking at options. Given that continuing with Russia in 2024 is most unlikely, the main possibilities are either Esa going it alone, or teaming up with a partner such as Nasa. Esa’s new <a href="https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Launch_vehicles/Ariane_6">Ariane-6 rocket</a>, which is nearly ready, could help launch the rover, as could a SpaceX rocket. For the lander and heaters, Esa would need to develop these alone or in collaboration with Nasa, by adapting existing technology.</p>
<p>It could therefore take time. What’s more, because of the way the planets orbit the Sun, there are opportunities for launches to Mars only every two years: in 2024, 2026 and so on. My expectation is that 2028 is most likely for our mission, but it will require hard work. The positive thing is that Esa and the member states are still keen to go ahead, and we are eagerly looking forward to the launch whenever that will be.</p>
<p>Ultimately, life changed for the Rosalind Franklin team on February 24. I’ve been working on the mission since 2003, when we first proposed a camera system for what became ExoMars. We had already provided the “stereo camera system” for Esa’s ill-fated Beagle 2, which very nearly worked when it landed on Christmas Day 2003. But orbiter images later showed that the last solar panel didn’t quite unfurl, so communications with Earth <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-our-lost-mars-lander-after-a-decade-of-searching-and-whats-next-85374">were impossible</a>. The wait for data from the Martian surface for our team goes on.</p>
<p>There is no getting away from the huge disappointment we felt when the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover that we had worked on for almost 20 years was suspended. But it was ultimately a necessary and understandable step, and we now look forward to a future launch. </p>
<p>This still is cutting-edge science, and it will be for the rest of this decade. Due to the uniquely deep drilling, Rosalind Franklin still may be the first mission to find <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-rover-could-discover-life-on-mars-heres-what-it-would-take-to-prove-it-89625">signs of life</a> in space.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Coates receives funding at UCL-MSSL from UK Space Agency and from STFC-UKRI, UK. He is PI of the PanCam instrument on the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, leading an international team from UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and others. He is currently on the board of the Centre for Planetary Sciences at UCL-Birkbeck, a member of STFC Science Board, and is President of the Society for Popular Astronomy (popastro), UK.</span></em></p>The European space agency will need both a launch vehicle and a lander platform to launch its ExoMars rover without help from Russia.Andrew Coates, Professor of Physics, Deputy Director (Solar System) at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1741882022-01-06T11:45:39Z2022-01-06T11:45:39ZAsteroids, the Moon and Mars: space missions to look forward to in 2022<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439305/original/file-20220104-15-t5w762.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C10%2C6528%2C4235&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The rocket boosters for the Space Launch System that will launch Nasa's Artemis I mission to the Moon. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/multimedia/images.html">NASA/Kim Shiflett</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Astronomers ended 2021 on a high with the launch on December 25 of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/james-webb-space-telescope-110147">James Webb Space Telescope</a>, a joint mission between the European Space Agency, Nasa and the Canadian Space Agency. It was a relief to hear that the precision drives that opened up the complex sunshield, which is about the size of a tennis court, <a href="https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_sunshield_fully_deployed">worked perfectly</a>. </p>
<p>The telescope is now on the way to its destination, 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth, where it will begin a series of tests once it arrives in late January. If the mission goes to plan, we can expect to start receiving images from the telescope in mid-2022.</p>
<p>But what else lies in store for space science this year? Here are a few missions to watch out for.</p>
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<p><em>Listen to Monica Grady on The Conversation Weekly’s recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/mrna-vaccines-asteroid-missions-and-collaborative-robots-what-to-watch-in-science-in-2022-podcast-174413">2022 science preview episode</a></em></p>
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<h2>Moon missions</h2>
<p>Nasa’s Artemis programme to send human astronauts back to the Moon in 2024 should get underway in 2022. The last astronauts to step foot on the Moon in 1972 made it there on a Saturn V rocket. Now Nasa has created a new generation of rockets, the Space Launch System (SLS), which will be tested for the first time in March with the launch of the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/around-the-moon-with-nasa-s-first-launch-of-sls-with-orion">Artemis 1 mission</a>. This will be a three-week-long, uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, which will include a flyby 100km above the surface of the Moon.</p>
<p>Eventually, the SLS will transport astronauts to the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/gateway/overview">Lunar Gateway</a>, the next-generation international space station that will be positioned in orbit around the Moon and act as a way station for missions to the surface. </p>
<p>The Moon will also be targeted by other space agencies in 2022. South Korea is hoping to launch its first lunar mission, the <a href="https://www.kari.re.kr/eng/sub03_07.do">Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter</a>, from Cape Canaveral in August. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, plans to launch <a href="https://iki.cosmos.ru/missions/luna-25">Luna 25</a> to the Moon’s south pole in July – over 45 years since Luna 24 returned almost 200g of lunar soil in August 1976. </p>
<h2>Psyche asteroid</h2>
<p>Mid 2022 will be a busy time for space exploration, as Nasa will also launch its <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/psyche">Psyche asteroid mission</a>. Psyche, which is orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, is an M-class asteroid, made of metal, so it’s similar to the core of the Earth. </p>
<p>We’ve never been close to an M-class asteroid before, nor have we been able to study the core of the Earth because it’s too deep down, so once this mission arrives in 2026 it should give us a whole new understanding of asteroid and planetary processes.</p>
<h2>Dart mission</h2>
<p>Not long after Psyche’s journey begins, the Dart mission, which launched in November 2021, should arrive at its destination in late September. </p>
<p>Dart – which stands for the double asteroid redirection test – is heading to asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos. The goal is to test what technology it would take to save the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nasa-imminent-asteroid-missions-could-reveal-our-origins-and-help-save-earth-from-deadly-strike-169974">Earth from an incoming asteroid in future</a>. Dart will deliberately crash into the smaller of the two bodies, Dimorphos, to move its orbit a little bit closer to Didymos, the larger one. This could give valuable insights into how to shift any asteroid on a collision course with Earth in the future. </p>
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<h2>ExoMars</h2>
<p>2021 was a busy year for Mars missions with the launch of Nasa’s Perseverance rover and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8x-9cCdFBk">Chinese Zhurong rover</a>, both of which continue to send back incredible images and data from the surface of the red planet. </p>
<p>In September 2022, the European Space Agency is due to launch the next part of its ExoMars mission in collaboration with Roscosmos. The first part of the mission, ExoMars 2016, sent a Trace Gas Orbiter to orbit around Mars in late 2016. </p>
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<p>ExoMars 2022 plans to send a Mars rover, the Rosalind Franklin, to the Martian surface to look for signs of past life. If the launch goes to plan, we’ll have to wait until 2023 for ExoMars to arrive and for the rover to start roaming the surface. </p>
<p>All in all, 2022 is looking to be a very exciting and fruitful time for space exploration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174188/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monica Grady is chancellor of Liverpool Hope University and a senior research fellow at London's Natural History Museum. She receives funding from Science and Technology Facilities Council and the UK Space Agency.</span></em></p>Nasa plans to test its new rocket system for the Moon, and a new rover is due to begin its journey to Mars.Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1030532018-11-06T11:41:10Z2018-11-06T11:41:10ZColonizing Mars means contaminating Mars – and never knowing for sure if it had its own native life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242763/original/file-20181029-76411-ioau9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=814%2C0%2C3775%2C2574&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Once people get there, Mars will be contaminated with Earth life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_261.html">NASA/Pat Rawlings, SAIC</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The closest place in the universe where extraterrestrial life might exist is Mars, and human beings are poised to attempt to colonize this planetary neighbor within the next decade. Before that happens, we need to recognize that a very real possibility exists that the first human steps on the Martian surface will lead to a collision between terrestrial life and biota native to Mars.</p>
<p>If the red planet is sterile, a human presence there would create no moral or ethical dilemmas on this front. But if life does exist on Mars, human explorers could easily lead to the extinction of Martian life. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KOrEwdkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As an astronomer</a> who explores these questions in my book “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11233.html">Life on Mars: What to Know Before We Go</a>,” I contend that we Earthlings need to understand this scenario and debate the possible outcomes of colonizing our neighboring planet in advance. Maybe missions that would carry humans to Mars need a timeout.</p>
<h2>Where life could be</h2>
<p>Life, scientists suggest, has some basic requirements. It could exist anywhere in the universe that has liquid water, a source of heat and energy, and copious amounts of a few essential elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and potassium.</p>
<p>Mars qualifies, as do at least two other places in our solar system. Both <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth/">Europa</a>, one of Jupiter’s large moons, and <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/enceladus/in-depth/">Enceladus</a>, one of Saturn’s large moons, appear to possess these prerequisites for hosting native biology.</p>
<p>I suggest that how scientists planned the exploratory missions to these two moons provides valuable background when considering how to explore Mars without risk of contamination.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242558/original/file-20181026-7050-3k87rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242558/original/file-20181026-7050-3k87rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242558/original/file-20181026-7050-3k87rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242558/original/file-20181026-7050-3k87rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242558/original/file-20181026-7050-3k87rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242558/original/file-20181026-7050-3k87rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242558/original/file-20181026-7050-3k87rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242558/original/file-20181026-7050-3k87rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Cassini shot this false-color image of jets erupting from the southern hemisphere of Enceladus on Nov. 27, 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/saturn_sponge.html">NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Below their thick layers of surface ice, both Europa and Enceladus have global oceans in which 4.5 billion years of churning of the primordial soup may have enabled life to develop and take root. NASA spacecraft have even imaged spectacular geysers ejecting plumes of water out into space from these subsurface oceans.</p>
<p>To find out if either moon has life, planetary scientists are actively developing the <a href="https://europa.nasa.gov/">Europa Clipper mission</a> for a 2020s launch. They also hope to plan future missions that will target Enceladus.</p>
<h2>Taking care to not contaminate</h2>
<p>Since the start of the space age, scientists have taken the threat of biological contamination of other worlds seriously. As early as 1959, NASA held meetings <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/when_biospheres_collide_detail.html">to debate the necessity of sterilizing spacecraft</a> that might be sent to other worlds. Since then, all planetary exploration missions have adhered to sterilization standards that balance their scientific goals with limitations of not damaging sensitive equipment, which could potentially lead to mission failures. Today, NASA protocols exist for the <a href="https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disciplines/planetary-protection">protection of all solar system bodies</a>, including Mars.</p>
<p>Since avoiding the biological contamination of Europa and Enceladus is an extremely well-understood, high-priority requirement of all missions to the Jovian and Saturnian environments, their moons remain uncontaminated.</p>
<p>NASA’s <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/galileo/overview/">Galileo mission explored Jupiter</a> and its moons from 1995 until 2003. Given Galileo’s orbit, the possibility existed that the spacecraft, once out of rocket propellant and subject to the whims of gravitational tugs from Jupiter and its many moons, could someday crash into and thereby contaminate Europa. </p>
<p>Such a collision might not occur until many millions of years from now. Nevertheless, though the risk was small, it was also real. NASA paid close attention to guidance from the <a href="https://www.nap.edu/initiative/committee-on-planetary-and-lunar-exploration">National Academies’ Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration</a>, which noted serious national and international objections to the possible accidental disposal of the Galileo spacecraft on Europa.</p>
<p>To completely eliminate any such risk, on Sept. 21, 2003, NASA used the last bit of fuel on the spacecraft to send it plunging into Jupiter’s atmosphere. At a speed of 30 miles per second, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/galileo_final.html">Galileo vaporized within seconds</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Cassini’s ‘Grand Finale’ ended with the spacecraft burning up in Saturn’s atmosphere.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Fourteen years later, NASA repeated this protect-the-moon scenario. The <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/overview/">Cassini mission orbited and studied Saturn</a> and its moons from 2004 until 2017. On Sept. 15, 2017, when fuel had run low, on instructions from NASA Cassini’s operators deliberately <a href="https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/about-the-mission/summary/">plunged the spacecraft into Saturn’s atmosphere</a>, where it disintegrated.</p>
<h2>But what about Mars?</h2>
<p>Mars is the target of <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/#missions">seven active missions</a>, including two rovers, <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/present/2003/">Opportunity</a> and <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rover-curiosity-mission-updates/">Curiosity</a>. In addition, on Nov. 26 NASA’s <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/">InSight mission</a> is scheduled to land on Mars, where it will make measurements of Mars’ interior structure. Next, with planned 2020 launches, both ESA’s <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/48088-mission-overview/">ExoMars rover</a> and NASA’s <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/">Mars 2020 rover</a> are designed to search for evidence of life on Mars.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242772/original/file-20181029-76413-otea1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242772/original/file-20181029-76413-otea1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242772/original/file-20181029-76413-otea1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242772/original/file-20181029-76413-otea1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242772/original/file-20181029-76413-otea1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242772/original/file-20181029-76413-otea1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242772/original/file-20181029-76413-otea1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242772/original/file-20181029-76413-otea1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Curiosity rover was tested under clean conditions on Earth before launch to prevent microbial stowaways.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/msl20100913.html">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The good news is that robotic rovers pose little risk of contamination to Mars, since all spacecraft designed to land on Mars are subject to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/mer_clean.html">strict sterilization procedures before launch</a>. This has been the case since NASA imposed “rigorous sterilization procedures” for the <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/past/viking/">Viking Lander Capsules</a> in the 1970s, since they would directly contact the Martian surface. These rovers likely have an extremely low number of microbial stowaways.</p>
<p>Any terrestrial biota that do manage to hitch rides on the outside of those rovers would have a very hard time surviving the half-year journey from Earth to Mars. The vacuum of space combined with exposure to harsh X-rays, ultraviolet light and cosmic rays would <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/when_biospheres_collide_detail.html">almost certainly sterilize the outsides of any spacecraft</a> sent to Mars.</p>
<p>Any bacteria that sneaked rides inside one of the rovers might arrive at Mars alive. But if any escaped, the <a href="https://www.space.com/16903-mars-atmosphere-climate-weather.html">thin Martian atmosphere</a> would offer virtually no protection from high energy, sterilizing radiation from space. Those bacteria would likely be killed immediately. Because of this harsh environment, life on Mars, if it currently exists, almost certainly must be hiding beneath the planet’s surface. Since no rovers have explored caves or dug deep holes, we have not yet had the opportunity to come face-to-drill-bit with any possible Martian microbes.</p>
<p>Given that the exploration of Mars has so far been limited to unmanned vehicles, the planet likely remains free from terrestrial contamination.</p>
<p>But when Earth sends astronauts to Mars, they’ll travel with life support and energy supply systems, habitats, 3D printers, food and tools. None of these materials can be sterilized in the same ways systems associated with robotic spacecraft can. Human colonists will produce waste, try to grow food and use machines to extract water from the ground and atmosphere. Simply by living on Mars, human colonists will contaminate Mars.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_dafbHGxNOE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Can’t turn back the clock after contamination</h2>
<p>Space researchers have developed a careful approach to robotic exploration of Mars and a hands-off attitude toward Europa and Enceladus. Why, then, are we collectively willing to overlook the risk to Martian life of human exploration and colonization of the red planet?</p>
<p>Contaminating Mars isn’t an unforeseen consequence. A quarter century ago, a National Research Council report entitled <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/12305">“Biological Contamination of Mars: Issues and Recommendations”</a> asserted that missions carrying humans to Mars will inevitably contaminate the planet. </p>
<p>I believe it’s critical that every attempt be made to obtain evidence of any past or present life on Mars well in advance of future missions to Mars that include humans. What we discover could influence our collective decision whether to send colonists there at all.</p>
<p>Even if we ignore or don’t care about the risks a human presence would pose to Martian life, the issue of bringing Martian life back to Earth has serious societal, legal and international implications that deserve discussion before it’s too late. What risks might Martian life pose to our environment or our health? And does any one country or group have the right to risk back contamination if those Martian lifeforms could attack the DNA molecule and thereby put all of life on Earth at risk?</p>
<p>But players both public – NASA, United Arab Emirates’ <a href="https://government.ae/en/more/uae-future/2030-2117">Mars 2117 project</a> – and private – <a href="https://www.spacex.com/mars">SpaceX</a>, <a href="https://www.mars-one.com">Mars One</a>, <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com">Blue Origin</a> – already plan to transport colonists to build cities on Mars. And these missions will contaminate Mars. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242775/original/file-20181029-76399-1ozr59w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242775/original/file-20181029-76399-1ozr59w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242775/original/file-20181029-76399-1ozr59w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242775/original/file-20181029-76399-1ozr59w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242775/original/file-20181029-76399-1ozr59w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242775/original/file-20181029-76399-1ozr59w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242775/original/file-20181029-76399-1ozr59w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242775/original/file-20181029-76399-1ozr59w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists hypothesize that dark narrow streaks were formed by briny liquid water – necessary for life – flowing down the walls of a crater on Mars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/7488/dark-recurring-streaks-on-walls-of-garni-crater/">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165243">Some scientists believe they</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0131">have already uncovered</a> <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-finds-ancient-organic-material-mysterious-methane-on-mars">strong evidence for life on Mars</a>, both past and present. If life already exists on Mars, then Mars, for now at least, belongs to the Martians. Mars is their planet, and Martian life would be threatened by a human presence there.</p>
<p>Does humanity have an inalienable right to colonize Mars simply because we will soon be able to do so? We have the technology to use robots to determine whether Mars is inhabited. Do ethics demand that we use those tools to answer definitively whether Mars is inhabited or sterile before we put human footprints on the Martian surface?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Weintraub does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>NASA’s InSight Mars lander touches down Nov. 26, part of a careful robotic approach to exploring the red planet. But human exploration of Mars will inevitably introduce Earth life. Are you OK with that?David Weintraub, Professor of Astronomy, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/896252018-01-04T15:03:58Z2018-01-04T15:03:58ZOur rover could discover life on Mars – here’s what it would take to prove it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200812/original/file-20180104-159080-1e8iy71.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mars seen by Viking.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA / USGS </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Finding past or present microbial life on Mars would without doubt be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. And in just two years’ time, there’s a big opportunity to do so, with two rovers launching there to look for signs of life – <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/rover/">Mars2020</a> by NASA and <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/">ExoMars</a> by the European Space Agency and Roscosmos.</p>
<p>I am helping to develop one of the instruments for the ExoMars rover, which will be Europe’s first attempt to land a mobile platform on the red planet. It will also be the first rover to drill into the martian crust to a depth of two metres.</p>
<p>But the rover will not be the first to look for evidence of life. The <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/viking">Viking landers</a> sent by NASA in the 1970s carried experiments designed to so. They were ultimately unsuccessful, but provided a wealth of information about Mars’ geology and atmosphere that comes in handy now. In fact, exploration over the last half-century has shown us that early Mars was once a dynamic and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-did-mars-lose-its-habitable-climate-the-answer-is-blowing-in-the-solar-wind-50258">potentially habitable planet</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200801/original/file-20180104-26157-1rpy5dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200801/original/file-20180104-26157-1rpy5dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200801/original/file-20180104-26157-1rpy5dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200801/original/file-20180104-26157-1rpy5dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200801/original/file-20180104-26157-1rpy5dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200801/original/file-20180104-26157-1rpy5dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200801/original/file-20180104-26157-1rpy5dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ExoMars prototype rover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Peel/wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While it is not completely impossible that life could exist on Mars today, ExoMars is primarily focused on looking for extinct life. Because there’s a risk it could contaminate the planet with microbes from Earth, it is not allowed to go near the sites where we think it’s possible that microbes could exist today.</p>
<h2>Chemofossils are the best bet</h2>
<p>On Earth, life constantly unfurls around us, leaving its mark on our planet every day. There are, however, a number of factors to contend with when looking for life on Mars. The first is that the lifeforms we are looking for are single-celled microorganisms, invisible to the naked eye. This is because life on Mars is unlikely to have progressed any further down the evolutionary path. This is actually not so strange – Earth itself <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20150701-the-origin-of-the-air-we-breathe">was a world of single-celled life</a> for two billion years or more.</p>
<p>Another issue is that the life we’re looking for would have existed three or four billion years ago. A lot can happen in that time – rocks preserving this evidence can be eroded away and redeposited, or buried deep beyond reach. Luckily, Mars does not have plate tectonics – the constant shifting about and recycling of the crust that we have on Earth – which means it’s a geological time capsule.</p>
<p>Because we are looking for evidence of long-dead microorganisms, the hunt for bio-signatures lies in the detection and identification of organic “chemofossils” – compounds that are left behind by the decomposition of life. These are different to organic compounds delivered to planets on the backs of meteorites, or those, such as methane, that can be produced by both geological and biological processes. No single compound will prove life once existed. </p>
<p>Rather, it will be distinctive patterns present in any organic compounds discovered that betray their biological origin. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid">Lipids</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amino_acid">amino acids</a>, for example, are fundamental components to living things, but are also found in certain meteorites. The difference lies in finding evidence that shows a process of selection. Lipids left behind by degraded cell membranes will likely have a limited size range, and comprise an even number of carbons. Similarly, amino acids naturally exist in both left-handed and right-handed forms (like gloves), but for some reason <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-life-left-handed-the-answer-is-in-the-stars-44862">life only uses the left-handed ones</a>. </p>
<p>It is also possible for microorganisms to produce visible fossils in the rock record. When conditions allow, microbial mats (multilayered communities of microorganisms) can become interspersed with fine sediment, producing characteristic morphological structures in rocks that form subsequently. However, the specific environmental conditions required for this mean such deposits are unlikely to be discovered by a rover exploring just one small region of a whole planet.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200770/original/file-20180104-26148-12pl96v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200770/original/file-20180104-26148-12pl96v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200770/original/file-20180104-26148-12pl96v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200770/original/file-20180104-26148-12pl96v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200770/original/file-20180104-26148-12pl96v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200770/original/file-20180104-26148-12pl96v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200770/original/file-20180104-26148-12pl96v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Microbial mat on Earth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alicejmichel/wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, the best bet will be looking for organic compounds, a task which falls to the <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/?fbodylongid=2132">Mars Organic Molecule Analyser (MOMA)</a> – the largest instrument in the ExoMars rover payload. </p>
<p>One intriguing finding from the Viking landers was the absence of detectable organic compounds at the martian surface. This was unexpected – many organic compounds are found throughout the solar system that do not form through biological activity. Subsequent missions revealed that a combination of harsh chemistry and intense radiation <a href="https://www.space.com/27760-organic-matter-on-mars.html">effectively remove much of the organic material</a> from the surface of Mars, regardless of its origin.</p>
<p>But more recently NASA’s Curiosity rover <a href="https://www.space.com/35012-curiosity-finds-mars-may-be-covered-in-organic-materials.html">has begun to find some simple organic compounds</a>, hinting at what may lie beneath. By analysing samples brought up from below the surface, MOMA will have a better shot at finding those organic biosignatures that have survived the ravages of time. </p>
<h2>Confusing contamination</h2>
<p>Before any search for biosignatures even begins, however, ExoMars will first need to find the right rocks. The landing sites shortlisted for the mission have, in part, been chosen based on their geological characteristics, including their age (more than 3.6 billion years old).</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200808/original/file-20180104-26160-tfvi9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200808/original/file-20180104-26160-tfvi9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200808/original/file-20180104-26160-tfvi9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=131&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200808/original/file-20180104-26160-tfvi9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200808/original/file-20180104-26160-tfvi9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=131&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200808/original/file-20180104-26160-tfvi9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=165&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200808/original/file-20180104-26160-tfvi9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=165&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200808/original/file-20180104-26160-tfvi9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=165&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Panorama of Mars taken by the Opportunity rover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If MOMA identifies organic molecules within the samples brought up by the drill, one of the first things will be to establish whether they are the result of contamination by any rogue Earth-based organics. While ExoMars is looking for alien life, it is designed to look for life that is based on the same fundamental chemistry as life on Earth. On one hand, this means highly sensitive instruments like MOMA can be designed that target biosignatures that we have a good understanding of, and therefore increase the likelihood that ExoMars will be a success. </p>
<p>The downside is that these instruments are also sensitive to life and organic molecules on Earth. To ensure terrestrial organic or microbiological stowaways are minimised, the rover and its instruments are built and assembled inside ultra clean rooms. Once on Mars, the rover will run a number of “blank” samples, which will show what, if any, contamination may be present. </p>
<p>Ultimately, finding strong evidence of extinct life on Mars, whether it be chemofossils or something more visible, will be just the first step. As with most scientific discoveries, it will be a gradual process, with evidence building up layer by layer until no other explanation exists. If the NASA Mars2020 rover also finds similarly tantalising evidence, then these discoveries will represent a step change in our understanding of life in general. And, while incredibly unlikely, it is of course possible that ExoMars chances upon some living martian microorganisms. </p>
<p>Whether ExoMars hits the jackpot remains to be seen, but at the very least it will mark a new beginning for the search for life on Mars.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Cousins receives funding from the UK Space Agency/STFC and Royal Society of Edinburgh.</span></em></p>If we find microbes on Mars, it will be difficult to exclude the possibility that we have accidentally brought them there from Earth.Claire Cousins, Research Fellow in Planetary Science, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/853742017-10-11T04:53:38Z2017-10-11T04:53:38ZHow we found our lost Mars lander after a decade of searching – and what’s next<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190144/original/file-20171013-11712-doqhen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Images of the lost Beagle 2.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The last picture taken of the Mars lander <a href="http://www.beagle2.com/">Beagle 2</a> showed it being successfully ejected from <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express">Mars Express</a> on Christmas Day in 2003. But sadly, we never got a signal back from the lander and have ever since tried to work out what happened, and where it is. Eventually we made a breakthrough – and our findings have now been <a href="http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsos.170785">published in Royal Society Open Science</a>. </p>
<p>Beagle 2 fascinated many people from all walks of life, including me as a young planetary science researcher. I was attracted by the sense of possibility that it opened up. Space exploration didn’t have to be carried out just by Americans and Russians in their vast missions. The UK-led Beagle 2 caught some of the sense of the British optimism in the late 1990s, and the contemporary pop band Blur and artist Damien Hirst actually <a href="https://www.channel4.com/news/colin-pillinger-rip-tribute-what-you-didnt-know">helped the late planetary scientist Colin Pillinger</a> to get funding for the project. </p>
<p>Our new results are based on a decade-long imaging campaign using the <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/">NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</a> HiRISE camera. Even with its pixel sizes of 0.3 metres on the martian surface, finding a small lander was always going to be difficult. Before the start of the <a href="https://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/">MRO/HiRISE</a> mission in 2006 it was even impossible.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beagle 2 after separation, on the left.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ESA</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Luckily, using Mars Express trajectory data, the European Space Agency (ESA) recalculated the Beagle 2 landing zone (the shape of an ellipse) from an original axis of 174km to 57km – greatly reducing the area on Mars that needed to be searched. Even so, we had to find a 1.5 metre lander in over 1400km<sup>2</sup> of Mars. </p>
<p>Between 2006 and 2014, a total of 26 HiRISE images were examined for signs of Beagle 2 – without success. However, German citizen scientist Michael Croon (a former member of the Mars Express operations team) had noticed a gap between HiRISE images within Beagle’s landing ellipse. With HiRISE, anyone can suggest a target to be imaged on Mars – if the case for it looks good, it will be taken and put on the public website. </p>
<p>In November 2014, Croon noted possible identification of the lander in the image he had requested, and asked for repeat imaging. The spot was some 20km from the original landing target in <a href="http://sci.esa.int/mars-express/25650-isidis-planitia/">Isidis Planitia</a>, a vast basin with signs of an ancient habitable environment. The red, oxidised martian surface at Isidis reflects light in a diffuse way but here was a strikingly bright object showing specular reflections – just the way light would be expected to reflect off the metallic and solar panel surfaces of a man-made object like Beagle 2. </p>
<p>Careful examination of combined multiple HiRISE images taken to check our observations showed a flat-lying, multi-lobed structure – Beagle 2. It suggested that some of the four solar panels had indeed deployed after landing. There was also an object moving between seven repeat HiRISE images. This may well be the lander’s aeroshell rear cover with its small parachute moving around on its tether.</p>
<p>So why didn’t Beagle 2 communicate after landing? As a small, 33kg lander – compare that to the one tonne <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html">Curiosity rover</a> behemoth – fitting all the communication and science equipment into the conical lander aeroshell was challenging. If one or more of the solar panels failed to deploy fully due to some damage at landing, then the radio antenna underneath them in the lander base would not have been able to communicate back to us via the Mars Express Orbiter. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, it seems that much of the landing sequence worked, including stable atmospheric entry, parachute deployments, airbag inflation and separation, and at least the first part of the sequence of solar panels unfolding from the base. The next step is to take even more images – that should help us work out how much of the deployment sequence occurred.</p>
<h2>The future of Mars exploration</h2>
<p>Pillinger was in some ways ahead of his time in seizing a chance to land on Mars. Currently there are several credible plans to land robotic vehicles on Mars within the next five years. At a recent Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Conference in Beijing, China <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/21/plans-2020-chinese-mars-probe-explore-possibility-human-settlement/">reaffirmed its intention to launch a rover to Mars</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>There are intriguing signs that China is opening up its ambitious space programme to the outside world and seeking collaborators. ESA and Chinese astronauts have trained together, and importantly data from the recent Yutu lunar rover <a href="http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2016/01281656-fun-with-a-new-data-set-change.html">were released</a> to the wider world. NASA have for a long time allowed everyone to access their data, and this culture of open access to science is clearly spreading. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189565/original/file-20171010-19989-im5soc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189565/original/file-20171010-19989-im5soc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189565/original/file-20171010-19989-im5soc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189565/original/file-20171010-19989-im5soc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189565/original/file-20171010-19989-im5soc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189565/original/file-20171010-19989-im5soc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189565/original/file-20171010-19989-im5soc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ESA rover test near the Paranal Observatory in Chile.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>India is planning a follow up to their <a href="https://www.space.com/23203-india-mars-orbiter-mission-photos.html">Mangalyaan Mars orbiter</a> success with a <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/science/isro-seeking-proposals-for-mars-orbiter-mission-2-4396357/">Mangalyaan 2</a> – and this may have a lander as well. The Indian government has signed a letter of intent with the French Space Agency <a href="https://cnes.fr/en/web/CNES-en/460-about-cnes.php">CNES</a> to help enable this. CNES is also looking to participate in a mission to Mars led by the United Arab Emirates. Indeed, collaboration is increasingly important – there are signs that Europe, the UK, US, Russia and India are also opening up at least some parts of their space programmes. How many other spheres of human activity can say that? </p>
<p>But it’s not all about spacecraft. Since 2003, planetary scientists in the UK have continued to work on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Martian_meteorites">129 identified martian meteorites</a>. A natural development from this research is a sample return mission from an area on Mars that we think from its mineralogy was likely to have been habitable for microbial life. The NASA Mars2020 mission is envisaged as the first part of such a mission. Scientists in the UK are discussing plans to have a facility where samples from the solar system, including Mars, could be curated and studied. </p>
<p>Meanwhile SpaceX are leading the way for commercial organisations to reach Mars and the moon. Whether they can successfully make it to Mars by 2020 <a href="https://theconversation.com/private-companies-are-launching-a-new-space-race-heres-what-to-expect-80697">remains to be seen</a> but an exciting new commercial emphasis on the parts of space exploration that have until now been solely the domain of government and intergovernmental agencies has clearly arrived. </p>
<p>However, the crash landing of the 2016 ESA Schiaparelli technology demonstrator lander is a salutary reminder that <a href="https://theconversation.com/decades-of-attempts-show-how-hard-it-is-to-land-on-mars-heres-how-we-plan-to-succeed-in-2021-69734">landing on and exploring another planet is not yet routine</a>. We hope to learn from this in the ExoMars2020 rover mission. Excitingly the ExoMars 2020 rover has a two-metre drill and sophisticated instruments to test for signs of ancient life. </p>
<p>Beagle 2 shows the fine and indistinct line between success and failure in Mars exploration. It introduced a new generation to the possibilities of space exploration and successfully achieved the initial stages of landing before unsuccessful final deployment of the solar panels. It will remain a significant part of the UK’s space science heritage for many years to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85374/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Bridges receives funding from UKSA, STFC, ESA, Horizon2020.</span></em></p>Beagle 2 shows the fine line between success and failure in Mars exploration. There’s a lot we can learn from it going forward.John Bridges, Professor of Planetary Science, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697342016-12-02T14:13:31Z2016-12-02T14:13:31ZDecades of attempts show how hard it is to land on Mars – here’s how we plan to succeed in 2021<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148406/original/image-20161202-25689-19fzp3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mars seen by the Viking oriter.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA/JPL/USGS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Europe has been trying to land on Mars since 2003, but none of the attempts have gone exactly according to plan. A couple of months ago, the <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/">ExoMars</a> Schiaparelli landing demonstrator <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-missing-lander-means-for-europes-quest-to-find-life-on-mars-67338">crashed onto the planet’s surface</a>, losing contact with its mothership. However, the mission was partially successful, providing information that will enable Europe and Russia to land its <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45084-exomars-rover/">ExoMars rover</a> on the Red Planet in 2021. </p>
<p>Now European research ministers <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38183188">have finally agreed</a> to give the mission the outstanding €400m it needs to go ahead. A lot is at stake as the rover is poised to uniquely drill under the harsh Martian surface to search for signs of past, or even present, life. With the best of human endeavour, we must learn, try again and not give up. As leader of the <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/?fbodylongid=2127">international Panoramic Camera team</a> on the rover, which will among other things provide surface geological and atmospheric context for the mission, I am one of many scientists working very hard to make it work. PanCam is one of nine state-of-the-art instruments which will help us analyse subsurface samples. </p>
<p>The reason it is so hard to land on Mars is that the atmospheric pressure is low, less than 1% of Earth’s surface pressure. This means that any probe will descend very rapidly to the surface, and must be slowed. What’s more, the landing has to be done autonomously as the light travel time from Earth is three to 22 minutes. This delay transmission means we can’t steer the rapid process from Earth. NASA and Russia have had their own problems with landings in the past, before the spectacular successes with the US missions <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/viking/">Viking</a>, <a href="http://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/past/pathfinder/">Pathfinder</a>, <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mars-exploration-rover-spirit-mer/">Spirit</a>,<a href="http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html">Opportunity</a>, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html">Phoenix</a> and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html">Curiosity</a>. </p>
<h2>Lessons learned</h2>
<p>Europe’s first attempt to land on Mars was with <a href="http://www.beagle2.com/">Beagle 2</a> on Christmas day 2003. Until recently the last we had seen of the lander was on December 19, 2003 – imaged soon after separation from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express">Mars Express</a> mothership. Mars Express itself was a huge success, entering orbit on December 25 that year and operating ever since. It has revolutionised our knowledge of Mars with stereo images, mineral mapping, studies of plasma escape from the planet’s atmosphere and the first detection of methane.</p>
<p>Recently, the Beagle 2 lander was imaged by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on the surface – <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37940445">tantalisingly close to success</a>, with only one of the four solar panels left undeployed. Unfortunately, the communications antenna was underneath that vital panel, preventing communications with Mars Express and Earth. Beagle 2 probably operated for a day or two at least, and may have taken its first panorama with our stereo camera system and its pop-up mirror.</p>
<p>Then, on October 19 this year, Schiaparelli tried to land. Using lessons learned from Beagle, detailed data were transmitted during the descent, after separation from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-exomars-mission-could-sniff-out-life-on-mars-and-what-to-do-next-56182">ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mothership</a>. The early parts were successful – we know that the heat-protective tiles did their job during entry into the thin Mars atmosphere, and that the parachute deployed as planned. </p>
<p>But then, unexpected spinning motion was detected for unknown reasons, the parachute was ejected early and the retro rockets were fired briefly. Despite altimeter and speed measurements, the on-board control computer became confused (saturated) over a second-long period and thought Schiaparelli had reached the surface already. Unfortunately, the craft was still 3.7km high, the retro rockets shut off early and Schiaparelli fell to the surface – impacting at over 300km/h. More lessons learned, the hard way. As the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38082636">controllers now know exactly what went wrong</a>, they are using the transmitted data to determine why and figure out how to avoid it happening again.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148404/original/image-20161202-25645-15ltl2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148404/original/image-20161202-25645-15ltl2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148404/original/image-20161202-25645-15ltl2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148404/original/image-20161202-25645-15ltl2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148404/original/image-20161202-25645-15ltl2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148404/original/image-20161202-25645-15ltl2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148404/original/image-20161202-25645-15ltl2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ExoMars close-up of a large unnamed crater north near the Mars equator.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ESA/Roscosmos/ExoMars/CaSSIS/UniBE</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meanwhile, the Trace Gas Orbiter successfully entered Mars orbit. Last week it sent its first stunningly promising images and data from its first close Mars encounter. Its final orbit will be a 400km circular orbit to be achieved in March 2018. This will involve a tricky, fuel-free braking process called “aerobraking” (which involves dragging the spacecraft through the top of the atmosphere in order to use the friction from the gas molecules to slow it down). </p>
<p>The spacecraft’s mission is to find out more about the surprising trace gases, including the methane. Methane should not be present in Mars’ atmosphere, as it is broken up by sunlight in tens to hundreds of years, so there must be a source of it there now. The possible options are both exciting – it could either be geothermal activity or microbial lifeforms.</p>
<h2>Searching for life</h2>
<p>The rover itself is the jewel in the crown of the ExoMars programme, planned for launch in 2020 and arriving in 2021. There are similarities and differences with earlier landing systems, which will again use lessons learned from earlier missions.</p>
<p>The rover has a unique drill which will collect samples from up to two metres underneath the harsh Martian surface. This is 40 times deeper than anything else planned – the Curiosity rover can only drill five centimetres. This is below where ultraviolet light and other radiation from our sun and galaxy – which is harmful to life – can reach. It is the most likely of any planned mission to finally answer the question of whether there was, or even is, life on Mars. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148407/original/image-20161202-25663-141k2sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148407/original/image-20161202-25663-141k2sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148407/original/image-20161202-25663-141k2sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148407/original/image-20161202-25663-141k2sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148407/original/image-20161202-25663-141k2sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148407/original/image-20161202-25663-141k2sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/148407/original/image-20161202-25663-141k2sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mars rover being tested near the Paranal Observatory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ESO/G. Hudepohl</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The possible landing sites have been narrowed down by engineering constraints but from a number of possibilities three now remain – <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/54724-oxia-planum/">Oxia Planum</a>, <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19797">Mawrth Valles</a> and <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/54722-aram-dorsum/">Aram Dorsum</a>. At the first two of these, data from orbit shows signs of water-rich clays (phyllosilicates), and the last one includes an ancient channel and sedimentary deposits – signs of past water erosion. The options will be narrowed down further in the next few months.</p>
<p>The mission is one of the most exciting in the search for life beyond Earth. Along with <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-moon-was-a-first-step-mars-will-test-our-capabilities-but-europa-is-the-prize-37253">Jupiter’s moon Europa</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-chemistry-that-could-feed-life-within-saturns-moon-enceladus-study-gives-clue-ahead-of-flyby-49683">Saturn’s satellite Enceladus</a>, Mars is one of the top locations to look. Moreover, the hardware development progress is good, with industry and academia pushing the frontiers of technology, pursuing the international teamwork needed to build and operate the mission, and learning how to work in super-clean rooms to avoid contaminating Mars with terrestrial spores.</p>
<p>We learn from the past and plan for the future. Space exploration is hard, particularly at Mars, and we must never give up. The ExoMars rover mission will play a key part internationally in Mars exploration, and using the lessons from the past we are poised to find the answer to one of mankind’s most important questions – are we alone in the universe? Our rover might just find the answer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Coates receives funding from UKSA and STFC. </span></em></p>Funding has been agreed for ESA’s ExoMars rover, giving new hope that Europe could find life on Mars.Andrew Coates, Professor of Physics, Deputy Director (Solar System) at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673382016-10-20T09:48:41Z2016-10-20T09:48:41ZWhat missing lander means for Europe’s quest to find life on Mars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142478/original/image-20161020-8858-qkuhyw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artist's impression of Schiaparelli landing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ESA/ATG medialab</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Researchers at the <a href="http://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESOC">European Space Operations’ Centre in Darmstadt</a>, Germany, had another one of those nervous days – waiting to hear first from a probe designed to land on Mars’ surface, and then from the probe’s orbiting mother ship. By the end of the day, the flight engineers and mission scientists were half satisfied – just after 16:00 (UT) on 19 October, they received the signal from the Trace Gas Orbiter. The spacecraft had made it safely into Mars orbit. Unfortunately, the Schiaparelli lander was less communicative, and no unambiguous landing signal was received.</p>
<p>Loss of the lander is disappointing, because it was a precursor to the system that will be deployed in four years to land a rover designed to search for life below the planet’s surface.</p>
<p>The Trace Gas Orbiter had to make a crucial manoeuvre to bring it into orbit under Mars’ gravitational influence, a time which is always one of concern for the space flight engineers. Staff in the control centre celebrated with cheers and joyful hugs when they received the signal that the probe had made it. The orbiter is only ESA’s second mission to Mars – Mars Express in 2003 being the first. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the orbiter’s travelling companion, Schiaparelli, may not be in such a great situation. In the same way that the lander carried by Mars Express failed to signal safe arrival on the surface, the Trace Gas Orbiter’s lander has so far remained silent. Schiaparelli was transmitting during its descent, and its signal was live until about 50 seconds before the anticipated touch down. </p>
<p>Additional data were received from Schiaparelli by the orbiter, and <a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/Schiaparelli_descent_data_decoding_underway">analysis of diagnostic information</a> in the data package should inform ESA what might have gone wrong. It is clear from the telemetry data that the parachute deployed, the heat shield was jettisoned and the retro rockets fired briefly. But it will take a bit longer to determine what happened during the final few seconds of the descent.</p>
<p>It is important to find this out because Schiaparelli is not a science-focused lander. Although it carried a variety of instruments down to the martian surface, including a camera, its main purpose was to test a new <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/47852-entry-descent-and-landing-demonstrator-module/">Entry, Descent and Landing Module</a> for the next phase of the mission: ExoMars 2020, which will aim to land a rover on the Red Planet. Fortunately, the telemetry data also give information about things including the structure of the atmosphere and wind speeds, so some of the science goals of Schiaparelli will be achieved.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142477/original/image-20161020-8828-5kxhwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142477/original/image-20161020-8828-5kxhwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142477/original/image-20161020-8828-5kxhwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142477/original/image-20161020-8828-5kxhwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142477/original/image-20161020-8828-5kxhwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142477/original/image-20161020-8828-5kxhwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142477/original/image-20161020-8828-5kxhwc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mars as seen by the webcam on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter on October 16 2016, as another mission, ExoMars, is about to reach the Red Planet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ESA</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Without Schiaparelli, ExoMars 2020 becomes riskier, because landing a rover on the surface has to be a careful operation. There is unlikely to be another opportunity to test the landing module prior to it being used to deploy the rover – so finding out what went wrong is crucial, so it can be corrected prior to 2020. The ExoMars rover will carry a drill that should be able to get through Mars’ surface to a depth of two metres, thought to be well below the zone in which UV radiation from the sun is able to destroy organic matter. The idea is that if there is any life on Mars, it is likely to exist below the surface – and the ExoMars drill hopes to find it.</p>
<h2>Search goes on</h2>
<p>It’s not the first time we have tried to find life on Mars. About a century and a half ago, Giovanni Schiaparelli <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/F_Canali_and_First_Martians.html">published a map of Mars</a> based on extensive telescope observations of the planet as it approached its minimum distance to the Earth in the summer of 1877. The map, with its detailed labelling of land masses and seas, had a significant influence on Mars research over the following decades – especially after the features that Schiaparelli marked as “canali” were mistranslated as “canals”, rather than “channels”. The noted astronomer and polymath Percival Lowell was captivated by Schiaparelli’s findings, and interpreted the features as artificial, produced by intelligent life forms. </p>
<p>In his 1908 work <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mars-Abode-Life-Primary-Source/dp/1293323462">Mars as the Abode of Life</a>, Lowell states: “We have carefully considered the circumstantial evidence in the case, and we have found that it points to intelligence acting on that other globe, and is incompatible with anything else.” Unfortunately for Lowell, subsequent observations with more powerful telescopes revealed that the channels were not real features, but were likely to be artefacts produced as optical illusions caused by dust in the planet’s atmosphere.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142479/original/image-20161020-8862-1mb6poe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142479/original/image-20161020-8862-1mb6poe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142479/original/image-20161020-8862-1mb6poe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142479/original/image-20161020-8862-1mb6poe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142479/original/image-20161020-8862-1mb6poe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142479/original/image-20161020-8862-1mb6poe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142479/original/image-20161020-8862-1mb6poe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of Mars by Lowell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">wikipedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Notwithstanding the lack of clear evidence that life exists or ever has existed on Mars, the possibility that the planet might be (or has been) an abode for life is one that is still eagerly considered – which is why the arrival of the latest mission has been greeted with enthusiasm by the scientific community. </p>
<p>The Trace Gas Orbiter carrying the Schiaparelli Lander was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in March 2016, and the mission is undertaken in collaboration with the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The orbiter will circle Mars for another year before it reaches the orbit it requires in order to start its three-year mission to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-exomars-mission-could-sniff-out-life-on-mars-and-what-to-do-next-56182">map the distribution and concentration of trace gases</a> in Mars’ atmosphere – including methane. Although methane is not a definitive indicator of living organisms, its presence is frequently associated with biological activity.</p>
<p>Even though Percival Lowell was convinced that there was life on Mars, he was not optimistic about our ability to meet with it. Mars as the Abode of Life concludes with the following sentences:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To our eventual descendants life on Mars will no longer be something to scan and interpret. It will have lapsed beyond the hope of study or recall … The drying up of the planet is certain to proceed until its surface can support no life at all. Slowly but surely, time will snuff it out. When the last ember is thus extinguished, the planet will roll a dead world through space, its evolutionary career forever ended.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We can only hope that measurements made by the the Trace Gas Orbiter over the next few years vindicate Lowell’s belief in the presence of Martian life, but contradict his pessimistic view of its survival potential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67338/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monica Grady is a Trustee of Lunar Mission One. She receives funding from the STFC and the EU. She is a Co-Investigator of the Euro-Cares Horizon 2020 project, which is building a roadmap for curation of returned extraterrestrial samples.</span></em></p>ESA’s second mission to Mars has become prey to the curse of the Red Planet – although the orbiter is heading for success, the Schiaparelli lander seems to have disappeared.Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/561822016-03-14T09:35:01Z2016-03-14T09:35:01ZHow the ExoMars mission could sniff out life on Mars – and what to do next<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114869/original/image-20160311-11277-1e3sq39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Schiaparelli separating from Trace Gas Orbiter.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ESA–D. Ducros</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“It (could be) life Jim, but (perhaps) not as we know it.” This is not just a sci-fi catchphrase, but also something some planetary scientists have uttered in response to the discovery of <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/16dec_methanespike/">methane in Mars’ atmosphere</a>. That’s right – scientists believe that some kind of past or present microbial lifeform on Mars could have produced the methane. While it is far from the only possible explanation, it is actually so plausible that a special mission is being sent there to find out.</p>
<p>The first part of what could be a series of missions – the European Space Agency’s <a href="http://exploration.esa.int/mars/">ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter</a> – launched on March 14 from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and I watched nervously after having spent 13 years working on one of its instruments. Needless to say, it was one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking days of my life.</p>
<h2>Many possibilities</h2>
<p>The mission is an orbiter that will map trace gases in the atmosphere of Mars, over an entire martian year (two Earth years). Of course the methane in the atmosphere doesn’t have to be from microbial life, it could also be caused by cosmic dust or geological processes. ExoMars will test for current geological processes that might be releasing the methane. If all goes well this mission will be followed by a more ambitious ExoMars Rover, designed to test for traces of ancient life, that will launch after 2018. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114867/original/image-20160311-11277-1oohxia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114867/original/image-20160311-11277-1oohxia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114867/original/image-20160311-11277-1oohxia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114867/original/image-20160311-11277-1oohxia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114867/original/image-20160311-11277-1oohxia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114867/original/image-20160311-11277-1oohxia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114867/original/image-20160311-11277-1oohxia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rocket with ExoMars as it is getting ready for launch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ESA - B. Bethge</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103504002222">first proposed observations</a> of methane plumes on Mars was made over a decade ago, from Earth. The data required a lot of processing, and led to <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001910351000446X">controversy</a> among planetary scientists.</p>
<p>According to our current understanding of atmospheric chemistry, methane on Mars should be destroyed relatively rapidly (on the order of a few hundred years). That means it is a gas that we shouldn’t really be seeing on Mars – unless there is some active process creating or releasing it. On Earth, the majority of methane in the atmosphere comes from biological organisms, which raises the question of whether Mars could also host life – past or present. </p>
<p>The orbiter is uniquely designed to map the minute constituents of the Martian atmosphere (such as methane), using a set of highly specialised <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-seeing-the-universe-through-spectroscopic-eyes-37759">spectroscopic and imaging instruments</a>. The spectrometers, which can analyse what a gas is made of by measuring the specific wavelengths of sunlight they absorb, are key to measuring the presence of methane and other gases. The relative mixture of the gases observed, along with their composition, can be compared to measurements on Earth in order to provide clues as to whether the origin of the methane could be geological or biological. </p>
<p>I co-led the development of one of these methane-sniffing instruments, <a href="http://mars.aeronomie.be/en/exomars/nomad.htm">NOMAD</a>, with colleagues from the UK and Belgium. Having worked on it for the last 13 years, it has been one of the most important achievements in my career.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114865/original/image-20160311-11264-17o3x1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114865/original/image-20160311-11264-17o3x1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114865/original/image-20160311-11264-17o3x1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114865/original/image-20160311-11264-17o3x1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114865/original/image-20160311-11264-17o3x1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114865/original/image-20160311-11264-17o3x1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114865/original/image-20160311-11264-17o3x1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114865/original/image-20160311-11264-17o3x1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The NOMAD spectrometer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The spacecraft will get to Mars in mid-October. The first thing it will do is to eject a technology demonstrator, the Schiaparelli lander, to prove that Europe can successfully reach the surface of Mars. The lander will provide a few days of surface weather measurements, lasting as long as the batteries on the lander permit. </p>
<p>In the meantime, the orbiter will begin manoeuvres to get into a circular orbit. It will use a fuel-free braking process called “aerobraking” (a somewhat terrifying concept of delicately dragging the spacecraft through the very top of the atmosphere in order to use the friction from the gas molecules to slow it down). This presents another first for Europe, in performing this type of dangerous manoeuvre around Mars. </p>
<h2>What to do if we find life</h2>
<p>So what would happen if we learned that there is microbial life on Mars, or that it has existed there in the past? Well it would only challenge everything we know. We would have to come to grips with not having a unique status in the universe and will have to work out how to include extraterrestrial “life” in our existential or religious beliefs – to name a few.</p>
<p>On a scientific level, there’s a lot at stake. Of course, it would also lead to major new efforts to find life on planets beyond Mars and even beyond our own solar system. </p>
<p>The first challenge if life is ever detected will be to prove that we didn’t bring it there from Earth – a difficult task to achieve. Careful cataloguing of the “bioburden” load on the spacecraft and from the cleanrooms it was assembled in can provide a check on what organisms might have been present on the spacecraft when it left the Earth. Fundamentally though, life that arose beyond the Earth would likely result from subtly different chemical processes, so to find out for sure, a detailed in situ biochemical analysis would be required. </p>
<p>The implications for future exploration of the Solar System are also profound – at present we take great care not to contaminate areas that are considered “special regions of relevance to potential life”; knowing with certainty that life is present will likely impose even stricter cleanliness requirements for any future exploration. In this respect, there lies an interesting debate for the future: should we pursue human exploration of a world that has been found to harbour life?</p>
<p>But even if we don’t find life, the benefits are huge. Ventures like the ExoMars orbiter have taught us to overcome a number of technological challenges, such as miniaturising sophisticated instruments and increasing technical performance, which also underpin many devices we use in everyday life. The skills developed are also of vital importance. Building such a complex spacecraft requires technical, management, software and creative skills that are directly applicable to many different industries and vocations. Pushing the boundaries of what is technically possible to achieve groundbreaking new science is what triggers the leaps that take us forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Manish Patel receives funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the UK Space Agency (UK SA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union (EU).</span></em></p>If we do find life on Mars, it will be difficult to prove that we didn’t bring it there from Earth. An insider talks us through what’s at stake.Manish Patel, Senior Lecturer in Planetary Sciences, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.