08-16-2017, 09:05 PM
Though we already know there was probably life on Mars, which once had much more abundant flowing rivers and seas, the question now is did it survive? Water now exists only locked in the frozen subsoil and icecapped poles. We know life exists in extreme conditions on Earth, so one presumes it might as well on Mars. Science though requires exacting proof, hence NASA is ready to launch a probe to uncover the truth.
The Urey: Mars Organic Oxidant Detector has been designed by NASA-funded researchers to look for life on Mars. This "life detector" will check for life's essential molecules at incredibly small concentrations. Urey will also distinguish between amino acids made by biological and non-biological processes.
The device is named after Harold Urey, who received the 1934 Nobel Prize in chemistry; Dr. Urey is also known for a 1953 experiment with Stanley Miller in which it was shown that a lightning-like discharge in a test tube full of methane, hydrogen, ammonia and water could produce amino acids.
Every form of life on Earth has proteins assembled from chains of amino acids. However, amino acids can be made both by living organisms and by non-biological processes. The presence of amino acids alone do not prove the existence of life.
It turns out that non-biological processes create a 50/50 mix of left- and right-handed versions of the molecules. Living things on Earth, however, make and use left-handed amino acids almost exclusively. Clever Urey the life detector will be looking for the ratio between left- and right-handed molecules.
A Urey component called the micro-capillary electrophoresis unit has the critical job of separating different types of organic compounds from one another for identification, including separation of mirror-image amino acids from each other. "We have essentially put a laboratory onto a single wafer," said Dr. Richard Mathies of the University of California, Berkeley, a Urey co-investigator.
The European Space Agency has chosen Urey to be part of the payload for the ExoMars rover planned for launch in 2013. The rover will grind Martian soil to a fine powder and then deliver it to a suite of instruments, including Urey.
The Urey sensor will remind many people of the long range "sensor scans" on science fiction programs like Star Trek. However, author Frank Herbert thought about the idea a decade earlier in his short story Cease Fire:
The antennae of the Life Detector atop the OP swept back and forth in a rhythmic halfcircle like so many frozen sticks brittle with rime ice..
What is " Life Detector " ?
A device that was capable of detecting living tissue within a set radius.This device was able to sense the presence of life directly, without using auxiliary signs (like carbon dioxide or heat emission).
Every form of life on Earth has proteins assembled from chains of amino acids. However, amino acids can be made both by living organisms and by non-biological processes. The presence of amino acids alone do not prove the existence of life.
It turns out that non-biological processes create a 50/50 mix of left- and right-handed versions of the molecules. Living things on Earth, however, make and use left-handed amino acids almost exclusively. Clever Urey the life detector will be looking for the ratio between left- and right-handed molecules.
A Urey component called the micro-capillary electrophoresis unit has the critical job of separating different types of organic compounds from one another for identification, including separation of mirror-image amino acids from each other. "We have essentially put a laboratory onto a single wafer," said Dr. Richard Mathies of the University of California, Berkeley, a Urey co-investigator.
The European Space Agency has chosen Urey to be part of the payload for the ExoMars rover planned for launch in 2013. The rover will grind Martian soil to a fine powder and then deliver it to a suite of instruments, including Urey
quick list of what's actually going on now:
1996 November 7, Delta II, currently operating in Mars orbit. Mars Global Surveyor (Nasa).
2001 April 7, Delta II, currently operating in Mars orbit. 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Surveyor 2001 Orbiter (Nasa).
2003 June 2, Soyuz-Fregat, currently operating in Mars orbit. Mars Express (ESA), Orbiter Mars Express and a Lander named Beagle 2.
2003 June 10, Delta 2 (7425), currently operating on the surface of Mars. Spirit, 2003 Mars Exploration Rover 2, MER-2, MER-A, Mars Surveyor 2003 Lander/Rover A (Nasa).
2003 July 7, Delta 2 (7425), currently operating on the surface of Mars. Opportunity, 2003 Mars Exploration Rover 1, MER-1, MER-B, Mars Surveyor
2003 Lander/Rover B (Nasa).
March 2, 2004, Ariane V, currently in interplanetary cruise. Rosetta (ESA). Was scheduled for launch in January 2003, as Mars/asteroid/comet mission, will flyby Mars for gravity assist on August 26, 2005, to finally reach and land on Comet 46 P/Wirtanen in 2011.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Surveyor 2005 Orbiter (Nasa). Arrived at Mars on March 10, 2006, inserted into highly-excentric orbit; now in aerobraking phase scheduled until November 2006.
2007 August. Phoenix - the selected Mars 2007 Small Scout Missions (Nasa): An in-situ volatile and organic molecule survey (LPL/Univ of Arizona).
2009 December Mars Science Laboratory, Mars Smart Lander, Mars 2009 Mobile Scientific Laboratory (Nasa).: Formerly scheduled for 2007, the spacecraft is now to be launched in December 2007, and to arrive at Mars in October 2010.
2009 Late Phobos-Grunt (Russia). Scheduled sample return mission to Martian moon Phobos.
2009 Late Beagle 2: Evolution (ESA). Mars Lander.
2011 Mars Scout 2 (Nasa). A mission succeeding and extending the 2007 Mars Scout, Phoenix; details to be defined. Mars Beyond 2009 page (JPL); Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC)
2011 Exo Mars (ESA). Will include an orbiter and a descent module that will land a highly mobile rover, weighing up to 200 kilograms, on the surface of Mars.
2014 Mars 2014 (Nasa; possible participations from France and Italy) Possibly first sample return mission. Mars Beyond 2009 page (JPL); Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC)
2016 Mars 2016 (Nasa, international?; under study). Possibly another sample return mission, or orbiters, landers, rovers. May include a Mars Astrobiology Field Laboratory, or Deep Drilling or other technologies. Mars Beyond 2009 page (JPL); Mars 2003 and 2005 page (NSSDC)
read more
http://astrobiology.berkeley.edu/PDFs_ar...SciRev.pdf