Finding Life on other planets will take good science and luck

Humanity will have the tools to detect alien life in the next two decades, but whether scientists can actually find life in another solar system depends a lot on luck, a panel of experts said Wednesday (May 21).

While the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), expected to launch in 2018, will have the ability to search for the chemical signatures of life in the atmospheres of alien worlds, it doesn't necessarily guarantee that scientists will find extraterrestrial life somewhere in the universe.

No one is sure how life begins or how ubiquitous it is, making it very difficult to pinpoint when and where to find it, scientists said during a session at the 30th US National Space Symposium in Clorado.

"We don't know how many planets we're going to have to examine before we find life, and not finding it on 10 or 100 doesn't mean it's not there," John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for the science mission directorate said during the panel. "This may be very tricky."

This diagram shows the position of Kepler-186f in relation to Earth.

Credit: NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-CalTech

A mission still in the early stages of development could also help scientists investigate alien worlds even without the use of a large telescope.

"Starshade," the huge sunflower-shaped craft would block light from a star to allow a well-positioned space telescope to look at the atmospheres of rocky planets orbiting sun-like stars, a historically difficult feat.

By using the starshade, scientists can hunt for an "Earth twin" orbiting a yellow star in the habitable zone like Earth, the only planet scientists know hosts life.

"We'll have the capability to find it [life] and we'll have that capability within a decade with James Webb and hopefully within two decades with an Earth twin, but beyond that, it's really just up to chance," Seager, who is affiliated with the starshade group, said.

The project is led by Jeremy Kasdin, a professor at Princeton University, N.J., in conjunction with JPL and support from Northrop Grumman of Redondo Beach, Calif.

Kasdin gave a TED talk about the project on March 19.

MARS MARTE: Mars simulation chamber explores habitability of other planets

The simulation chamber, named MARTE, is designed to enable study of the behaviour of instrumentation and samples of different types and sizes in pressure ranges up to 10-6 mbar controlling the gas composition, with temperature control of samples in the range of 108K to 423K. 

Credit: J. Martín-Gago/ICMM

A research team in Spain has the enviable job of testing out new electromechanical gear for potential use in future missions to the "Red Planet."

They do it within their Mars environmental simulation chamber, which is specially designed to mimic conditions on the fourth planet from the sun, right down to its infamous Martian dust.

Mars is a key target for future space exploration, thanks to indications that the planet may have either been capable of supporting life in the past or is possibly even supporting it right now within its subsurface.

To answer the many questions about the habitability of Mars, it's critical to first develop new sensors and instruments capable of detecting the planet's atmospheric and surface characteristics.

In the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers from Centro de Astrobiología, INTA-CSIC, and Instituto de Ciencias de Materials de Madrid describe their work mimicking conditions on Mars.

Jose Angel Martín-Gago

"Mars is a good place to learn about planets similar to ours and, as such, is the target of many NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) missions," explained Jose Angel Martín-Gago, a research professor at the Instituto de Ciencias de Materials de Madrid.

"Our group is primarily involved in the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission to construct a meteorological station intended for future use on a rover to further explore Mars' surface."

By building here on Earth state-of-the-art vacuum chambers capable of reproducing the physical conditions of Mars, including temperature, pressure, gas composition, and radiation, the researchers can experimentally mimic these conditions to test instrumentation in "real" environmental operation conditions.

Vacuum chambers have already enabled the researchers to test some of the meteorological sensors currently used onboard the Curiosity rover, which is exploring the surface of Mars but they are now turning their attention to other challenges, such as Martian dust.

Jesus Sobrado

"We're simulating the effect of the Martian dust, one of the primary problems for planetary exploration, to gain a better understanding of how instruments behave when covered in dust," said Jesus Sobrado, the scientist in charge of the machine's technical development.

As part of its research effort, the team has designed and built vacuum chambers devoted to simulating spatial environments, such as the surface of other planets like Mars' surface or even Jupiter's icy moon Europa, the interstellar medium, and interplanetary regions.

More information: "Mimicking Mars: A vacuum simulation chamber for testing environmental instrumentation for Mars" by J.M. Sobrado, J. Martín-Soler, and J.A. Martín-Gago, Review of Scientific Instruments on March 25, 2014. DOI: 10.1063/1.4868592

NIAC: Fleets of 'Flat Landers' Could Explore Other Planets

Future space missions may send dozens of rug-like robots fluttering down to the surface of alien worlds, taking much of the risk out of planetary exploration. 

Credit: Hamid Hemmati

Future space missions may send dozens of rug-like robots fluttering down to the surface of alien worlds, taking much of the risk out of planetary exploration.

Researchers are developing flat, blanket-size landers that could be delivered en masse to worlds such as Mars or the Jupiter moon Europa.

The approach represents a radical departure from the surface-exploration status quo, which generally launches single-shot, big-ticket landers or rovers that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to design and build.

The two-dimensional lander idea "gives you the capability to stack them up and distribute them over a wide range of areas rather than just be able to land in only one place, and have one shot at landing," Hamid Hemmati, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said last month at the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) symposium at Stanford University.

"We think it will enable NASA to go places that that they don't dare to go right now."

A new type of exploration
Hemmati and his team got a $100,000 grant from NIAC last year to develop the "flat lander" concept.

The current vision calls for dozens of sensor-loaded sheets, each about 3 feet long by 3 feet wide (1 meter by 1 meter), but less than 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) thick, to be toted to another planet or moon by a mother ship.

Mason Peck, Cornell University, In-Orbit Assembly of Modular Space Systems with Non-Contacting, Flux-Pinned Interfaces.

Each sheet would touch down at a different location, without the need for complicated and expensive landing systems such as the "sky crane" that dropped NASA's Curiosity rover onto the surface of Mars in August 2012, researchers say.

Nestor Voronka, Tethers Unlimited, Inc., An Architecture of Modular Spacecraft with Integrated Structural Electrodynamic Propulsion (ISEP)

"These landers should be capable of passive landings, avoiding the costly, complex use of rockets, radar and associated structure and control systems," Hemmati and his colleagues write in a description of the project on the NIAC website.

The loss of a few landers on any particular mission would not be a big deal anyway, Hemmati said.

"They don't all have to survive; we have dozens of them," he said. "Even if half of them make it, it's still good. We'll be happy."