The universe is an endless place which sometimes whispers out some of its secrets. A satellite set off to the "Red Planet", hoping to answer the eternal question "Is There Life on Mars?" An orbiter was launched into outer space on Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with the purpose of looking for traces of any form of life, past or not. When the Curiosity Mars rover discovered water there last year, everybody began to believe that mankind was only one step away from discovering the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Now the ExoMars joint project of the European Space Agency and Roscosmos aims to reach beyond that discovery.

“The main task of the orbiter is the survey of Mars’ atmosphere gases that could be organic in their origin, as well as of the water vapor content and subsurface ice,” Prof. Yordanka Semkova from the Institute for Cosmic Research with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) explains. “Radiation research will be carried out along the route to Mars and into its orbit with the assistance of the Lyulin MO Bulgarian appliance.”

Prof. Yordanka Semkova is the head of the team that developed the Lyulin MO dosimetry tool which is part of the ExoMars project appliance. It will measure radiation from galactic and solar cosmic rays and from Mars’ secondary radiation. This is particularly important for the teams of the future flights to the "Red Planet". It turns out that radiation is one of the main obstacles for man to step onto Mars – its allowable concentration is reached within 900 days and the travel from the Earth lasts around 3 years.

“After those 900 days we increase the risk of cancer and everything else,” says Prof. Tsvetan Dachev from the scientific team. “The issue will be still here after 10–15 years too – that is when we plan the first landing on Mars. However, why don’t we use robots instead? At this stage it looks like the Mars 1 project for the establishment of a colony there is more like a lie than reality…”

The initial data from the appliance launched into outer space will be received on April 4 and the entire journey will last 7 months. If it turns out that methane exists in the planet’s atmosphere,  it will mean possible biological activity on its surface. At the same time,  Prof. Dachev is rather skeptical:

“In my opinion, any possible life on Mars existed no later than several billions of years ago when the planet was still warm enough, with atmosphere. It has been constantly blown away from solar wind due to the fact that the weight of Mars is smaller than the one of the Earth. I see any fantastic scenarios on the transforming of its atmosphere as utopias – it is as if we start working against the Sun – this is impossible…”

However, the Moon will be the first place to be visited by flights with pilots, no less than 10 years from now, according to Prof. Semkova. It will also be turned into a base for flights to Mars, the professor says, adding that neither of those two planets can replace our Earth and we should protect the latter, taking strict care of it.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev