Title: NASA’s Decades-Old Mars Tool Gets a Life-Detecting Upgrade – Here’s How!
Breakthrough Discovery: Old Tech, New Tricks
A team of researchers, led by doctoral student Solomon Hirsch and Professor Mark Sephton from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, has uncovered a groundbreaking new use for a decades-old instrument aboard Mars rovers. The Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS), a tool installed on Martian probes since the 1970s, can now detect a unique chemical signature linked to living—or recently deceased—cells.
The Key to Detecting Life
Published in the journal npj Space Exploration, their method identifies molecular bonds in intact polar lipids (IPLs), compounds found in the outer membranes of bacteria and eukaryotic cells. These lipids degrade rapidly—within hours—after an organism dies, making their detection a strong indicator of active or recent life. In GC-MS data, these bonds appear as distinct “peaks” in the readings.
“Space agencies like NASA and ESA don’t realize their equipment can already do this,” says Professor Sephton. “We’ve found an elegant, fast way to detect chemical bonds that signal active life.”
Cost-Effective and Versatile
This innovation isn’t just limited to Mars missions—it could also revolutionize the search for life on icy moons like Europa and Enceladus. Additionally, it offers a cost-saving solution for preliminary screening of returned samples, potentially saving millions in research funding.
Hope for Active Life on Mars
Despite Mars’ harsh surface conditions, Hirsch remains optimistic: “Life is remarkable—it finds ways to survive even in extreme environments. Missions like ExoMars, which will drill meters below the surface, have a much higher chance of uncovering these biosignatures.”
This discovery proves that even old space technology can unlock new frontiers in the hunt for extraterrestrial life.
