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Cranfield researcher aims to head search for life on Mars

Wednesday, 05 September 2007

Article Index Cranfield researcher aims to head search for life on Mars Page 2 Page 1 of 2 Multi-million pound Cranfield University research could herald the “news of the century” should it successfully detect life on Mars. A collaborative effort between Cranfield and the University of Leicester is constructing cutting-edge instrumentation, capable of withstanding the harsh Martian atmosphere, and able to detect minute traces of life on the Red Planet. The team, which has won its third round of funding and attracted £370k, is representing the UK in the race to provide life detection instrumentation for the European Space Agency’s (EPA) ExoMars mission in 2013. The program has been selected for one of only ten spaces for instrumentation on the Mars rover, to provide equipment able to detect organic molecules – proof of current or ancient life on the planet – for the planned European mission. “This will be the first time anyone has been able to do an immunoassay on another world,” said Dr David Cullen, of Cranfield’s Biophysics & Biosensors Department. “This could potentially be a major discovery of the century and Cranfield would be at the forefront of it.” Cranfield’s involvement in the joint effort began with a chance meeting between Dr Cullen, and Dr Mark Simms of the University of Leicester, who was project-managing the British-led Beagle 2 mission at the time. “I got talking to Mark about the Beagle mission, and he approached me about the possibility of combining my work on biosensors with a Martian mission, putting together expertise from different fields.” The team are creating a cluster of instrumentation, called a Life Marker Chip (LMC), capable of detecting trace compounds in Martian soil, in response to a call for life-detecting apparatus made by the ESA in 2003. The LMC consists of novel antibody micro-array technology, using long wavelength fluorescent dyes and an antibody immunoassay to detect particles of organic compounds in the Martian soil. “This very peculiar instrument is regarded as a very important, next-generation instrument for the detection of signs of life,” said the ESA. “It will probably be the only instrument on Pasteur – the name given to the rover for the ExoMars mission – capable of directly identifying molecules of unequivocal biological origin.” But all is not yet plain sailing for the British team, as the technology still needs to be tested to assess whether it is hardy enough to withstand the ravages of space. “The program is subject to a continual review process, and many institutions fall by the wayside. While all of the equipment and biological samples included on the LMC have been exposed to radiation in the lab, the next step is to put them into space to see if they can survive,” said Dr Cullen. This objective will be achieved during a mission in a few weeks, named “Biopad,” where the experiments will piggyback a Russian orbiter to test its viability in space. Prev - Next >>

 

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