A British-constructed Mars rover is poised to become the first spacecraft to bore two metres beneath the Martian surface in search of ancient biological traces.
The ExoMars “Rosalind Franklin” rover, manufactured in Stevenage by Airbus for the European Space Agency, is due to launch in 2028, with a planned arrival on Mars in 2030.
Scientists working on the mission believe that if they find life on Mars, it could share a common origin with terrestrial organisms, a concept known as panspermia.
Martian life might even have given rise to our own.
Susanne Schwenzer, professor of planetary mineralogy at the Open University and an interdisciplinary scientist on the mission, said: “If life is the same there, it may be that we are all from the same ancestor.
“Is panspermia possible? Is it possible for life to travel from one planet for another? We don’t know but these are all questions we have to answer.”
Roughly four billion years ago, Mars boasted lakes, rivers and a vast ocean, shielded by both an atmosphere and a magnetic field.
This habitable era overlapped with the Late Heavy Bombardment, a period between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago when enormous numbers of asteroids and comets struck the inner planets, potentially delivering life’s essential building blocks such as amino acids and DNA components.
The ExoMars ‘Rosalind Franklin’ rover was manufactured in Stevenage by Airbus for the European Space Agency
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However, Mars cooled much faster than Earth, causing its molten-core dynamo to fail.
The resulting collapse of its magnetic field left the planet exposed to solar wind, which stripped away its atmosphere and water, rendering it uninhabitable by approximately 3.7 billion years ago.
Billions of years of cosmic radiation have since sterilised the Martian surface, meaning earlier rovers, which penetrated only a few inches, stood little chance of detecting preserved biological material.
Drilling two metres deep is therefore said to be critical.
The rover will touch down at Oxia Planum, a site close to the Martian equator selected for its ancient clay-rich sedimentary deposits, formed during an era when water flowed freely across the planet’s surface.
The ExoMars ‘Rosalind Franklin’ rover has a planned arrival on Mars in 2030
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Onboard instruments include a panoramic camera designed by University College London and an infrared spectrometer built at Aberystwyth University, both used to identify promising drilling locations.
A ground-penetrating radar then examines what lies beneath before extraction begins.
In recent weeks, the team has been rehearsing navigation procedures in Spain’s Tabernas desert near Almería, whose terrain closely resembles the Martian landscape.
Because radio signals between Earth and Mars take between four and 21 minutes, the rover must operate autonomously and receive daily instructions from ESA’s control centre in Turin.
The mission was originally slated for a 2022 launch, and the rover should already be operating on Mars.
Scientists working on the mission believe that if they find life on Mars, it could share a common origin with terrestrial organisms
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However, the conflict in Ukraine prompted ESA to cut ties with Roscosmos, which had been supplying key components.
Nasa and the UK Space Agency subsequently stepped in to provide replacements.
Benoît Pouffary, head of exploration, preparation, research and technology at ESA, said: “I do believe that life may have happened on Mars, it seems something that is credible.”
He added: “Today our view is of Earth as a little world alone but if we find evidence there was life in another time, and another area of our solar system, it suggests life is everywhere, absolutely. The way we imagine our universe would be changed forever.”
Professor Schwenzer described the prospect as “almost frightening to think about, because it changes everything.”
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