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A robot laden with sensor equipment has detected life on the arid terrain of the Chilean desert, a first for rover-based systems.
Nobody was surprised to find life there, but with the harsh conditions and sparse biological activity, the feat is likened to finding microbial creatures on Mars if any exists there.
Zoë, a four-wheeled automaton built to scan for living organisms, found evidence of bacterial colonies and lichens living among the rocks of Chile’s Atacama Desert.
"Our life detection system worked very well, and something like it ultimately may enable robots to look for life on Mars," said Alan Waggoner, an Atacama study team member and director of the Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center at Carnegie Mellon University.
NASA’s Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are currently exploring the Red Planet, but they are not equipped to make the specific measurements needed for life detection.
Developed by Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, Zoë borrows its name from the Greek word for "life." The robot is part of a three-year Life in the Atacama project at the Astrobiology Science and Technology Program for Exploring Planets, aimed at understanding how life can be detected by remotely operated rovers.
"We saw very clear signals from chlorophyll, DNA and protein," Waggoner said, adding that researchers also found visual evidence of biological materials from images taken by Zoë’s cameras. "Taken together, these four pieces of evidence are strong indicators of life."
The research was presented this week at the 36th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston. Nathalie Cabrol, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, led the study.
Zoë stands just over 3 feet (one meter) tall and carries a fluorescence imager on its undercarriage to detect chlorophyll-based-life like the cyanobacteria in lichens. The instrument can also pick up signals from fluorescent dyes that light up when they connect with nucleic acids, proteins and other life-relevant molecules.
www.msnbc.msn.com...
Originally posted by Gazrok
Nope...
Baby steps..
1. confirm extra-solar planets - check
2. confirm water on other worlds - check
3. confirm microscopic life on other worlds - working on it
4. confirm fossils of larger life on other worlds
5. disclosure
Brookings Report my friend...clearly outlines that acclimation is the path chosen....
Originally posted by Gazrok
3. confirm microscopic life on other worlds - working on it