While the clamoring to bring bits and pieces of Mars back to Earth for intensive study continues, scientists are also devising instruments and techniques that can be sent to the Red Planet to perform on-the-spot probes for life. Could these low-cost approaches usurp the early need for samples shot directly from Mars?
That option brings to mind the comment from Marcel Proust — a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel In Search of Lost Time: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” For the discovery of prior life on Mars, a sample return program would work best, but if we want to discover present-day life on the Red Planet, doing so with instruments right there on Mars is the way to go.
That’s the view of Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a professor for astrobiology and planetary habitability at the Technical University Berlin in Germany. Additionally, he thinks currently available methodologies are suitable and far enough developed to determine whether there is life on Mars.
“However, in order to get unambiguous results we would have to put a suite of several of these methodologies together,” Schulze-Makuch told Space.com.
Enigmatic chemical activity
Schulze-Makuch points back in time to the dual NASA Viking lander missions in the 1970s. It was a heady time for trying to answer a provocative question: Is Mars an abode for life?
While biology experiments detected unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity in the Martian soil, a majority of Viking Mars investigators leaned toward no clear, slam dunk proof for the presence of living microorganisms in soil near the landing sites.
Arguably, the twin Viking landers did respond to the life on Mars query by responding: Can you repeat the question?
“In principle the Viking approach was correct,” Schulze-Makuch said. “The problem at that time, nearly 50 years ago, was that our methods were not as sophisticated yet. We did not have a good understanding about the Martian environments. We have made major advances in both regards,” the astrobiologist said.
Carl Sagan stands by Viking Mars lander model in desert location. His call continues to ring true that “extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.” (Image credit: NASA)
Difficult to interpret
Schulze-Makuch said it’s true that with Mars sample return, scientists can apply even more of our most sophisticated methods, including those not yet available for a space mission.
But due to the long time period a soil sample is boxed up — both on the surface of Mars and during the long haul from Mars to Earth, “we would likely only find organic remnants of possible life, which would be difficult to interpret. This approach would work well for past life on Mars,” Schulze-Makuch said, “but if our goal is to find extant life, then an in-situ mission is the way to go.”
Viking results
“There is an inevitable tension in Mars sample return and the search for life,” said Chris McKay, a space scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California.
“It is clearly the case that the best search for life would be done on samples in laboratories on Earth,” McKay told Space.com. “But the prospect of bringing back a sample that may have Martian life in it gives many people pause and indeed is regulated, some might say prohibited, by the [United Nations] Outer Space Treaty.”
Can we assume based on the Viking results that there is no life on the surface of Mars?
“My answer to this is yes and no,” McKay responded. The Mars researcher underscores data gleaned by Viking in 1976, the NASA Phoenix lander discovery of perchlorate in 2007, as well as the analysis from the still-cranking Curiosity Mars rover that showed low levels of organics since landing in 2012.
“Most Mars scientists contend that the reactivity seen in the Martian soil is chemical and there is no surface biology now. So yes,” McKay said. “But No. This view is not unanimous,” he said, citing the case for extant life on Mars and its possible detection by the Viking labeled release experiment.
Now on duty at Jezero Crater on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover has been a hunter-gatherer of prized specimens for later pick-up and delivery to Earth. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Public opinion
NASA and the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), an interdisciplinary scientific body, both consider any sample return from Mars as a potential biological risk, said McKay.
McKay said he has argued in print that “the standard of evidence to achieve scientific consensus is clearly lower than the standard that must be applied to the precautionary protection of the Earth. Life may not be the scientifically preferred explanation for the [Viking Labeled Release] results but it cannot yet be ruled out.”
It may well be that public opinion or legal procedure, McKay said “will not support an assumption of no life on Mars for the purposes of sample or astronaut return to Earth without further analyses on Mars, regardless of the scientific consensus,” he concluded.
Maturation pipeline
One potential NASA mission that has gained support is the Mars Life Explorer (MLE). This deep-digging lander would focus on a search for signs of currently existing Red Planet life.
MLE received a hearty endorsement from the most recent planetary science decadal survey, a report by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that was issued in April 2022.
The instrument suite on MLE is designed to be “instrument agnostic,” said astrobiologist and MLE’s “science champion,” Amy Williams, an assistant professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Geological Sciences in Gainesville.
There are suites of instruments that already exist that could fly with the proposed MLE, or new instruments and technologies that are currently in the maturation pipeline that could be swapped in, Williams told Space.com. “There are very real opportunities for alternative and novel instruments to join the mission.”
Concept art depicts proposed Mars Life Explorer to test for evidence of extant life on the Red Planet. (Image credit: Amy Williams)
Life screening
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In the interim, research teams are pioneering the SOLID (“Signs Of LIfe Detector”), work carried out by Spain’s Center for Astrobiology. There’s also a Microfluidic Life Analyzer, or MILA, that has evolved at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Or how about building an instrument to be used during robotic ice mining missions, a high-tech device to seek Martian life thriving today?
That approach is underway by Steven Benner, founder of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution and Firebird Biomolecular Sciences LLC.
In fact, the Agnostic Life Finding Association (ALFA) has been established, with both Benner and Jan Špaček, inventor of the Agnostic Life Finder (ALF), as leadership members.
“The only way to achieve the goal of ALFA Mars is to conduct the life screening of Mars before the first humans land there,” the association’s website declares.
So, in the end, it appears that the “whether or not” forecast about life on Mars remains foggy with patches of uncertainty.
Revisiting Carl Sagan’s famous words that “extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence,” the take by astrobiologist Schulze-Makuch’s is that “based on our current understanding of Mars, I think that the extraordinary claim is that Mars has no life and never had any life. We should finally go and find out!”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
