The Search for Life on Mars
In this 6th session of the internet-based live lectures between Universities and Institutes, Dr Jorge Vago (ESA) discusses missions to Mars and in particular the European mission ExoMars.
ExoMars’s scientific objectives are:
1) To search for signs of past and present life;
2) To identify surface hazards to future human Mars missions; and
3) To characterise, in the shallow subsurface, the vertical distribution profile for water and geochemical composition.
ExoMars will deploy a high-mobility rover on the Martian surface, carrying a comprehensive suite of analytical instruments dedicated to exobiology, geochemistry, and environmental research. Over its planned 6-month lifetime, the rover will travel a few tens of kilometres searching for traces of past and present signs of life.
