Life Detection for Advanced Missions

by | Sep 12, 2004 | Astrobiology and SETI

Because its geology is so much like that of Mars, the Norwegian island of Svalbard is a useful site for creating strategies for future mission sampling and analysis. The Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition (AMASE) has been using a suite of instruments to detect bacterial populations including spectroscopic equipment and a device that can detect cell wall components. The most interesting of the team’s methods may be protein microarrays, which can test for thousands of different molecules simultaneously.

“We’ve passed a major milestone,” said Dr. Andrew Steele of the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, and a member of the AMASE team. “We successfully tested an integrated Mars life-detection strategy for the first time and showed that if life on Mars resembles life on Earth at all, we’ll be able to find even a single-cell.”

Source: Press release “Major milestone for detecting life on Mars” via EurekAlert. An image of Dr. Steele on Svalbard (with spectacular scenery in the background) is available here.

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In Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities. For many years this site coordinated its efforts with the Tau Zero Foundation. It now serves as an independent forum for deep space news and ideas. In the logo above, the leftmost star is Alpha Centauri, a triple system closer than any other star, and a primary target for early interstellar probes. To its right is Beta Centauri (not a part of the Alpha Centauri system), with Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon Crucis, stars in the Southern Cross, visible at the far right (image courtesy of Marco Lorenzi).

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