A technique by the US military which monitors the air to detect harmful and dangerous chemicals, toxins, and germs have inspired a new device that can "sniff" life on Mars.
Enter, the Bio Indicator Lidar Instrument, or BILI, a fluorescent lidar, a remote sensing device which bears likeliness to radars, the Indian express reports.The only difference is that the lidar instruments use light to examine particles, whereas radars use radio waves. NASA has extensively used fluorescent equipment to monitor chemicals on the earth's atmosphere but never for planetary exploration.
"NASA has never used it before for planetary ground level exploration. If the agency develops it, it will be the first of a kind," explains Branimir Blagojevic, a NASA technologist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland,United States, reported The Indian Express.
The Washington Post notes that NASA has been looking for a mechanical nose to sniff out chemicals in alien planets. WP reports that the team of researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said that they will use the sensor for future voyages to Mars and to other planets.
The Defense Department's Joint Biological Standoff Detection System which is used for this instrument cannot magically show the existence of living creatures but can point to amino acids and other minerals integral to life.
Furthermore, the Indian express reported that the instrument is low maintanence. "BILI's measurements do not require consumables other than electrical power and can be conducted quickly over a broad area. This is a survey instrument, with a nose for certain molecules," Blagojevic mentioned.
NASA could greatly increase chances of finding semblances of organic molecules and bio signatures in different planets and thesolar system with an instrument like this attached to various orbiters and spacecraft.
