A new
experiment similar to a pregnancy test but designed to search for signs of life
on Mars is now exposed to the vacuum of space above Earth.
The
European Space Agency's (ESA) postage-stamp-sized experiment, called the
"Life Marker Chip" (LMC), was launched last week aboard a Russian
rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Strapped to the ESA's
large Foton-M3 capsule, the tiny experiment harbors more than 2,000
life-detecting samples that glow if they encounter life-critical compounds,
such as proteins or DNA.
Scientists and engineers hope the life-sensing chip can
remain viable in the harsh radiation, temperatures and vacuum of space during a
trip to Mars.
"This
will be the first time that these types of materials will have flown
unprotected in space in a manner similar to a flight to Mars," said Andrew
Steele, a molecular biologist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C.
The LMC
experiment works like a pregnancy test, which uses color-changing chemicals to
pick up traces of hormones found in greater numbers after
conception. Scientists will examine the LMC's samples once the Foton-M3
mission returns to Earth on Sept. 25 near the Russia-Kazakhstan border.
The
experiment's managers ultimately hope to strap their fully tested device aboard
the ESA's "ExoMars" robotic rover mission, planned for launch in
2013, where it would serve as a tiny "lab-on-a-chip" to detect traces
of past or present martian life.
"This
mission will be an important stepping stone in our ultimate goal of putting a
LMC experiment on the surface of Mars and using it to search for evidence of
life," said Mark Sims, an LMC mission manager at University of Leicester
in the U.K.
The LMC
experiment is one of nine others found in the cylindrical "BIOPAN-6"
compartment bolted to the outside of the Foton-M3 capsule. When the
satellite reached a stable orbit on Friday, BIOPAN-6 opened its hatch to begin
exposing the 10 experiments to space for 12 days.
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