Mars 'Pregnancy Test' Orbits Earth

There is a new experiment designed to search for signs of life on Mars that works similar to a pregnancy test and is now exposed to the vacuum of space above Earth. This postage-stamp-size experiment was conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA). It is called the “Life Marker Chip” (LMC) and was launched last week aboard a Russian rocket launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. It was strapped to the ESA’s large Foton-M3 capsule. This tiny experiment harbors more than 2,000 life-detecting samples that glow if they encounter life-critical compounds, such as proteins or DNA.

Scientists and engineers hope that this small life-sensing chip can remain viable in the harsh radiation, temperatures, and vacuum of space during the long trip to Mars. Andrew Steele, a molecular biologist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington D.C. states that, “This will be the first time that these types of materials will have flown unprotected in space in a manner similar to a flight to Mars.”

The Life Marker Chip Experiment works just like a pregnancy test, which uses color-changing chemicals to pick up traces of hormones found in greater numbers after conception. Once the Foton-M3 mission returns to Earth on Sept. 25 near the Russia-Kazakhstan border, Scientists will examine the LMC’s samples.

The experiment’s managers hope to strap their fully tested device aboard the ESA’s “ExoMars” robotic rover mission that is planned for launch in 2013. It would serve as a tiny “lab-on-a-chip” to detect traces of past or present martian life. Mark Sims, an LMC mission Manager is very exited about the experiment and believes “this mission will be a stepping stone in our ultimate goal of putting a LMC experiment on the surface of Mars and using it to search for evidence of life.”The LMC experiment is just one of nine other found in the cylindrical “BIOPAN-6” compartment bolted to the outside of the Foton-M3 capsule. On Friday when the satellite reached a stable orbit, BIOPAN-6 opened its hatch to being exposing the 10 experiments to space for 12 days.