Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

It is the second major adoption idea in recent weeks for the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC-MS) first designed to discover life on Mars on the Beagle 2 space mission following the announcement of an investment to adopt it as a diagnostic tool for tuberculosis.

The GC-MS made it onto an initial shortlist of potential technologies that could be used to find water around the Moon’s polar regions with the aim of using it to launch a further manned mission to Mars following a recommendation from NASA’s centre for human spaceflight activities, the Johnson Space Center (JSC).

“NASA put out a call for ideas and JSC submitted one proposal saying they should be looking at Beagle technology,” said Dr Colin Pillinger, Professor of Planetary Sciences at the Open University and leader of the Beagle 2 mission.

“It was one of about 80 considered. It then made it onto a long shortlist for further investigation. We hope to be selected for the final shortlist next and then hope to be chosen for a mission.”

While the American government has announced funding support for manned missions to the Moon followed by Mars, work on existing projects needs to be completed first says Dr Pillinger.

“NASA’s first priority is to retire the space shuttle and then complete the International Space Station (ISS). Next is a 2018 moon landing. 2011 to 2018 will be robotic missions.”

Preparation for a moon landing may also take longer than anticipated according to Dr Pillinger because of the need to rehearse: “The people who did it last time are not there any more.”

However, the need to use the moon as a stepping stone to further human exploration is almost without question.

“Astronauts going into ISS are allowed just one litre of water a day,” says Dr Pillinger. “If you find water on the moon that in itself is one plus. A second is you can take the water and undergo electrolysis. This produces hydrogen which can be used as rocket fuel and oxygen for people to breathe.”

The Moon’s polar regions are thought to hold greater potential for the discovery of water. Temperatures are also higher than around the equator where a single night lasts 14 Earth days and nights and temperatures average between -140ºC and -150ºC, which could cause problems for instrumentation.

“If we have a permanent Moon base, we’ll need to go to the poles and the South Pole is the preferred option,” said Dr Pillinger.

“The South Pole is around -50ºC. Because the angle of the Sun is low, there are areas of permanent sunshine and shade, which could potentially trap water. The moon is so intensely bombarded that some of these will be comets, which are 95 per cent water. They go into a vapour phase and could be trapped in those areas.

“NASA has found signals that could be interpreted as such. The only way to know, however, is to go there and analyse it. The most important instrument for this is a mass spectrometer, which will analyse for water and is capable of measuring the isotonic composition and saying where it comes from.”

Dr Pillinger says further spin-offs from the GC-MS are possible if funded. “The TB tool is a huge spin-off from the technology, something which is seriously valuable to the world in general. There are other potential medical uses – various cancers, anything to do with lungs – but all require investment to see if can blend the mass spectrometer.”