Finding Life in Extra-Terrestrial Space:Will Perseverance persevere?
Among all the myriad of news that we receive every day, the most interesting and optimistic one we have received in a while is the launch of NASA’s Perseverance Rover and the Ingenuity Helicopter drone. The Rover along with the helicopter will be landing in Jezero crater located in the Syrtis Major quadrangle in Mars. The crater is thought to have housed a major lake during the early Martian era, now contains delta rich deposits like clay. The purpose of the mission is to search for signs of life in the crater, so as to further explore the possibility of inhabiting Mars in future.
What is the Rover likely to discover?
It’s common that Aliens are the first thing that strikes our minds while speculating about life in outer space but life in this case refers to basic proofs for its existence. One of the earliest proofs of life are stromatolites (from Greek: ‘stroma’-layer, ‘lithos’- rock). These are rocks which were formed by cyanobacteria, a group of photosynthetic bacteria. Discovering stromatolites on Mars would serve as an evidence of life in other planetary bodies as stromatolites were responsible for increasing concentration of oxygen in the early Earth atmosphere. Furthermore, we can also determine how these forms of ‘life’ have evolved until they’ve eventually disappeared due to intense radiation on the atmosphere devoid Mars but these cannot be done in the Martian atmosphere, by the Rover. The Rover will only be collecting samples of Martian soil and these rocks. The samples could take years to be ferried back to earth, until another mission arrives to pick it up.
The Jezero crater is believed to have held around 800 feet of water at one point of time during the course of its history (4 billion years old). The rocks contain lots of information that can be decoded with various techniques available in laboratories. Therefore, the crater is a premier place to look for signs of life and to collect samples of soil and sediments.
There are also other signs of life on Mars, that the Rover might explore. These biosignatures correspond to various phenomenon which are speculated to have been produced by the metabolic, biochemical or the physiological activity of living things which can be gaseous, spectral or temporal. Gases can be obtained as a by-product during biochemical processes. One of the most common gases attributed as a biosignature is molecular oxygen O2. The major producer of Oxygen on Earth is photosynthesis. However, its synthesis is controversial, as oxygen can be produced by non-biological processes as well. So, this is not a definitive indication of life as such.
Organisms need oxygen for survival which the Martian atmosphere lacks. The thin atmosphere is comprised of 95% CO2 and less than 1% O2. One of the major experiments that the Rover will carry out is to make Oxygen from the Carbon di-Oxide abundant atmosphere. To do this, it has a tool called MOXIE- Mars Oxygen In-situ Experiment. This will try to produce Oxygen by the process of electrolysis, inside the MOXIE setup. MOXIE is also described as tree-like, as it takes in CO2 and gives out O2.
If the Oxygen production is successful, it will pave way for future manned missions to Mars. There are plausible ways to equip the spacecraft with oxygen supply however this would swell the load on the craft which could otherwise be used to accommodate other payloads. The Oxygen produced by MOXIE and maybe its future versions will be a valuable addition to all future missions.
Odds for and against the mission
One major boon in this mission is the backup thermoelectric generator apart from the main radioactive power. This generator is expected to last for approximately 14 years, which means that we might keep getting data about the Martian atmosphere, topography in the form of images for many years on end.
While mankind is waiting in anticipation to mark the definitive evidence of life on Mars, we must also entertain the possibility that such an event might never occur. However, this experiment is still hunky dory and future missions can focus on studying different aspects in Mars as well as proliferate towards finding life in another celestial body. Though the path taken by the Rover and Helicopter is riddled with impediments, the end goal if achieved will be a big milestone in space exploration.
Bibliography
https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/24681/jezero-craters-ancient-lakeshore/?site=insight
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2017.1729#s003
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/moxie/
https://bgr.com/2020/07/30/perseverance-rover-life-span-battery-power/
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