Abstract
To date, Mars-based exploration programs have attempted to determine whether water was ever present on Mars, with a more recent shift to research that aims to determine whether life ever existed on Mars. A joint NASA–ESA–MSL (National Aeronautics and Space Administration–European Space Agency–Mars Science Lab) program will determine whether life-related molecules are present on Mars using mass spectroscopy and tunable laser absorption spectroscopy. ESA-Russia ExoMars program will search for life-related molecules using an antibody-based molecule detection system.
The Japan Astrobiology Mars Project (JAMP) section of the Japanese MELOS (Multiple Lander Orbiter Synergy) program is planning to search for cells within the uppermost several cm of Martian soil using a fluorescence microscope. The recent discovery of methane on Mars and the analysis of microbes on Earth have suggested the presence of methane-oxidizing microbes on the Martian surface, with a fluorescent pigment enabling the detection of cells of Martian origins that have significantly different characteristics from terrestrial-derived cells.
