According to Joel Levine of NASA methane gas on Mars can be located with the help of an aeroplane mission called ARES (Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey of Mars).
Photo credit: NASA
Washington, Mar.20 (ANI): A scientist at the Cape Canaveral-based National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA) has claimed that a rocket-propelled aeroplane has the best possible chance of locating, sucking in and analyzing methane gas from the atmosphere on Mars.
According to Joel Levine of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, methane gas on Mars can be located with the help of an aeroplane mission called ARES (Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey of Mars).
Though Levine and his colleagues had hoped to launch their mission in 2011 as part of NASA's Mars Scout programme, they failed to make NASA’s shortlist of possible missions in that timeframe.
Last week, Levine told scientists at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, that an aeroplane would not only be able to detect local concentrations of methane, but also be able to survey a path hundreds of kilometres long.
He further went on to explain that the ARES plane would enter Mars' atmosphere protected by a heat shield; drift close to the surface on a parachute, then cut loose at an altitude of 1.5 kilometers for a rocket-powered flight.
Levine claimed that ARES would be able to identify different compounds in the atmosphere, including methane, by precisely
weighing molecules sucked into a device called a mass spectrometer.
Such a device, he added, could detect methane at levels of just a few parts per billion. This would be enough to measure the way the abundance increases or decreases from place to place, which is called the concentration gradient.
"You can actually measure gradients and identify the source of these gases. I think this is a way to do it," Levine told the conference.
Europe's Mars Express orbiter and Earth-based telescopes have detected methane in the atmosphere of Mars in the last few years, which is a puzzle since the gas quickly breaks down when exposed to sunlight.
That suggested the gas has been released recently – perhaps by lava welling up close to the planet surface, or, more intriguingly, by micro-organisms like those that produce methane on Earth
Mars Express has detected methane from orbit by looking for the characteristic way that it absorbs light.
The spacecraft is able to detect some variation in the concentration of methane across the planet, but not with a resolution high enough to pin down a specific source.
Rovers fitted with the right equipment would be able to detect specific methane sources, but only if the sources happened to be located within the limited driving range of such vehicles. (ANI)