Canadian scientists lead the way in analysis of Martian atmosphere

Team will develop spectrometer to use in search for signs of life on Red Planet

By Mike Barber – Vancouver Sun – August 3, 2010

A Canadian team will share a lead role in creating an instrument to analyze the levels of methane and oxygen in Mars’s atmosphere, potentially uncovering signs of life on the red planet.

The Canadian Space Agency announced Monday a team of Canadian scientists will develop the Mars Atmospheric Trace Molecule Occultation Spectrometer.

It is an extremely sensitive device that will orbit Mars and document the planet’s chemical makeup, said Victoria Hipkin, a planetary scientist with the agency and the project’s co-leader.

The spectrometer will be placed aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency scheduled to launch in 2016.

If successful, “it would set a very clear pathway for future Mars exploration,” Hipkin said. “It’s a very ambitious mission.”

The spectrometer has its roots in another Canadian endeavour, a satellite measuring trace amounts of gas on Earth that has yielded discoveries on ozone depletion and air quality since its launch in 2003, Hipkin said.

“We’re now applying this amazingly sensitive instrument to the Mars atmosphere to look for signs of activity,” she said. “This is an area in which Canada is currently leading the world.”

The spectrometer will search primarily for methane, which Hipkin called “a potential signature of biology on Mars.”

On Earth, both methane and oxygen are primarily produced by life—methane from algae and the digestive tracts of animals, and oxygen from plants.

“Together, they provide an amazing signature for anyone looking at Earth a long way away to say that there must be active biology on this planet, because those two gases will react together,” Hipkin explained.

The spectrometer will be able to measure how much methane there is at different locations around Mars, and how it changes throughout the seasons.

Areas with higher concentrations would indicate regions on Mars’s surface ripe for further exploration.

“Trying to understand its atmospheric chemistry is a different kind of fundamental look that we’re taking at Mars that hasn’t been done before,” Hipkin said.

“The technique we’re applying to Mars now is the primary one we will use to understand the planets beyond our solar system.”