ExoLance is a low-cost mission concept that could hitch a ride on other missions to
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
in an effort to look for evidence of
subsurface life.
Concept
The ExoLance concept was conceived in 2014 by Steve McDaniel and consists in an impact penetrator that would fly to Mars as a secondary payload on a future Mars lander mission. A Mars lander would carry a set of ExoLance penetrators, each weighing a few kilograms. The penetrators would separate as the lander spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere, passively falling to the Martian surface. The penetrators would make use of technology originally developed for "
bunker buster
A bunker buster is a type of munition that is designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground, such as military bunkers.
Armor piercing shells
Germany
Röchling shells were bunker-busting artillery shells, developed ...
" munitions, which are designed to burrow under the surface before exploding. In this case, the explosive payload would be replaced by a scientific one, specifically, a
metabolic test that would attempt to detect chemical reactions created by any active
microorganism
A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...
s living one to two meters below the surface.
The rear end of the penetrator would remain on the surface, connected to the buried probe by a cable, to provide a communications link to orbiting satellites. Having multiple probes allows for individual probe failures without losing the entire mission. The goal is to create something that is both small enough and affordable enough to be able to be put on several planned flights.
Aerojet Rocketdyne is performing computer modeling of the Mars penetrators as a design tool.
[ A company called ExoLife Inc. has patented the improved deep penetrator designed to carry life-detection equipment and has licensed critical, self-sterilizing coating technology for the penetrators. ExoLife is testing the detection equipment and self-sterilizing surface technology that will be carried as the payloads. Once the concept is sufficiently tested and has been proven, 'Explore Mars' in collaboration with its corporate partners (AeroJet and ExoLife) will approach space agencies and potential commercial providers to carry ExoLance on one or more future Mars missions.]Gilbert Levin
Gilbert Victor Levin (April 23, 1924 – July 26, 2021) was an American engineer, the founder of Biospherics and the principal investigator of the ''Viking'' mission Labeled Release experiment. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1997, Levin ...
and Joe Cassidy.
Subsurface habitability
Although Mars soils are likely not to be overtly toxic to terrestrial microorganisms,
See also
* Astrobiology
*Life on Mars
The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no proof of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ...
References
External links
Meeting presentation of ExoLance
a YouTube video, 16 min.
{{DEFAULTSORT:ExoLance
Missions to Mars
Proposed space probes
Impactor spacecraft
Proposed astrobiology space missions