Washington, Sept 18: Astronomers have launched into space the key components of a new approach to discover life on Mars.

The test is part of a 12-day low Earth orbit experiment to assess their survivability in the space radiation experiment – a prelude to future journeys to Mars, and is based in technology similar to that used in pregnancy test kits.

The so-called immunoassays are embodied in the “Life Marker Chip” (LMC) experiment, which has the potential to detect trace levels of biomarkers in the Martian environment.

Biomarkers are molecular fingerprints that indicate if life currently is, or ever was, present on Mars. The LMC experiment has been proposed for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover mission, which is planned for launch in 2013.

The experiment is presently in the development phase and is led by an international consortium with researchers from the US, the UK, The Netherlands and Germany.

For the current mission, the consortium developed a tiny component, measuring only 1.5 inches x 1.6 inches x .5 inch and housing over 2000 samples, to test that the key molecular components to be used in the LMC technology can survive the rigours of space.

The experiment was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as part of the ESA’s BIOPAN-6 experiment platform.

The LMC components will experience both weightlessness and the harsh space radiation environment while orbiting the Earth 180 times at an altitude of up to 190 miles (308 km) during the 11.8-day mission.

The BIOPAN-6 platform is mounted on the outside of an un-manned Russian
FOTON spacecraft.

Once in space, the BIOPAN-6 platform will open to expose its contents directly to the space environment, testing both their resistance to space radiation and the space vacuum, before closing and returning to Earth on September 25th.

The LMC components will then be taken back to laboratories in the UK and the US to analyze the effect of the space flight.

Dr. Lutz Richter of Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany and the principal investigator for the current experiment said, “the experiment is the culmination of a number of years of hard work and ground based tests to prove the viability of the LMC technology”. (With Inputs from ANI)