Laser Could Aid Search for Life on Mars
source: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/081022-tw-laser-mars-life.html
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- NYChris
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The search for past life on Mars just got a new tool in its tool belt with an instrument that zaps bits of minerals off rocks and analyzes those pieces for the remains of living cells.
NASA orbiters and rovers have found abundant evidence that liquid water once flowed on the surface of Mars, and that evidence of water raises the possibility that the red planet once harbored life, even if only tiny microbes.
Other missions have looked at the question of life on Mars more directly. The U.S. Viking missions of the 1970s and '80s tested Martian dirt for life directly, but didn't find it. NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is approaching the end of its mission to analyze the ice-rich dirt of Mars' arctic region for signs of organics.
But what scientists would really love is to get their hands on a sample of Mars and bring it back to Earth. That's where this instrument, which is being developed by researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), would come in.
How it works
The instrument uses a "point-and-shoot" laser technique called laser desorption mass spectroscopy to analyze mineral samples. The researchers focus a laser beam on a spot less than one-hundredth the width of a pencil point and the laser knocks off microscopic fragments of the mineral.
NASA orbiters and rovers have found abundant evidence that liquid water once flowed on the surface of Mars, and that evidence of water raises the possibility that the red planet once harbored life, even if only tiny microbes.
Other missions have looked at the question of life on Mars more directly. The U.S. Viking missions of the 1970s and '80s tested Martian dirt for life directly, but didn't find it. NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is approaching the end of its mission to analyze the ice-rich dirt of Mars' arctic region for signs of organics.
But what scientists would really love is to get their hands on a sample of Mars and bring it back to Earth. That's where this instrument, which is being developed by researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), would come in.
How it works
The instrument uses a "point-and-shoot" laser technique called laser desorption mass spectroscopy to analyze mineral samples. The researchers focus a laser beam on a spot less than one-hundredth the width of a pencil point and the laser knocks off microscopic fragments of the mineral.
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rkwok
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You may be interested to know that we've recently created a new podcast about this research at Idaho National Laboratory. Here's the link:
- 3 years ago
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rkwok
