Sample return is likely our best bet to find Mars life, if it ever existed, a new study suggests.
has fallen short because the Red Planet has always been barren or because the probes sent there are not sensitive enough to detect any life onsite. To help solve this mystery, scientists tested instruments that are currently or may be sent to Mars alongside highly sensitive lab equipment.
The researchers analyzed samples from Red Stone, the remains of a river delta in the Atacama Desert of Chile, one of the oldest and driest deserts on Earth. These deposits, which formed under highly arid conditions about 100 million to 160 million years ago, strongly resemble Mars'Red Stone regularly experiences fogs that supply water for microbes that live at the site.
However, the testbed versions of instruments currently on or planned for Mars — including one 10 times more sensitive than one on Curiosity — were barely able to detect organic signs of life in Red Stone samples. "I would have expected that the testbed instruments we tested in order to detect the evidence of life at Red Stone that we knew was there using tools you might find in any microbiology lab would fare better," study lead author Armando Azua-Bustos, of the Center of Astrobiology in Madrid, told Space.com."And they didn't.
"We're still learning how to detect evidence of life on Mars," Azua-Bustos said."The current nature of the instruments sent there have their limits. But that's not because they have been badly designed. We're still on the learning curve."
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