Skip to Content

A Better Tool to Search for Life on Mars

A new way to move charged particles could mean a better chance of finding life on the red planet.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have developed a way to make mass spectrometers, which are used to detect signs of life in martian soil, more efficient. These instruments work by taking a soil sample and turning it into gas and then ionizing it. The ions are then sent through a channel to be trapped and identified–proteins and amino acids are considered signs of life.

Spectrometers currently use air flow created by pumps, which are heavy and energy intensive, to channel the ions into the trap. If ions hit the walls of the channel they will die. The new technology uses electric fields to guide the ions directly into the trap instead.

“This is a novel way to shape electric fields for moving ions around,” said Tim McJunkin, an engineer at INL, in the press release. Called the total ion control method, the new technology could be used on devices like the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA), which will be part of a Mars mission in 2018. The researchers have been in communications with the MOMA team leader, LuAnn Becker, who is also a scientist at Johns Hopkins University. “This is an enabling technology,” she said in the release. “If you want to move ions around cheaply and robustly, and without much weight, this is the way to do it.”

The device uses only 100 miliwatts of power and during testing was able to guide 10 times as many ions into the trap as commercially available devices. The new method could also be used in instruments that analyze explosives in airports.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI

The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models. 

The Biggest Questions: What is death?

New neuroscience is challenging our understanding of the dying process—bringing opportunities for the living.

Rogue superintelligence and merging with machines: Inside the mind of OpenAI’s chief scientist

An exclusive conversation with Ilya Sutskever on his fears for the future of AI and why they’ve made him change the focus of his life’s work.

How to fix the internet

If we want online discourse to improve, we need to move beyond the big platforms.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.