COULD MARS EVER CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING LIFE?
NASA and crowdsourcing platform HeroX have launched a $30,000 challenge to find better ways to analyze data relating to Mars’ potential to host life.
The deadline to make your submission is April 18, and you can review the full competition eligibility requirements, along with the HeroX challenge page, to get more information.
The goal is to create a tool to autonomously analyze data flowing from spectrometers on Mars rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity. Their spectrometers are used to analyze the composition of rocks and to seek out components like organic molecules, which can be the building blocks of life in some circumstances.
Mars may have hosted life due to the presence of liquid water on its surface in ancient times. It is unclear if life ever arose there, or if such life might have persisted to modern times, but the possibility is tantalizing enough that NASA and the European Space Agency are working together on a Mars sample return mission that will allow pristine Red Planet material to be analyzed here on Earth. In the meantime, though, NASA has numerous Red Planet missions that may benefit from improvements in life-hunting technology.
Related articles: