The advocacy organization Explore Mars has opened a crowd-funding campaign to back the ExoLance project to develop a system capable of looking for life below the surface of Mars. : ExoLance: Engineering the Science to Help Humanity Investigate Life on Mars – Indiegogo.
If proven, the ExoLance surface penetrator could be delivered to Mars if accepted as an experiment on a future NASA mission. The team has several prominent researchers including Dr. Chris McKay and Dr. Gil Levin. Levin was involved in the experiments on the Viking landers that looked for indications of microbial life :
NASA selected his Labeled Release life detection experiment for the Viking Mission, which landed on Mars in 1976. Positive results were obtained at both Viking landing sites. After years of study, Dr. Levin concluded, in 1997, that the experiment had detected living microorganisms.
This video outlines the project:
Here’s the official announcement:
Explore Mars Launches Indiegogo Campaign to Fund
Search for Subsurface Martian Life
WASHINGTON – August 1, 2014 – On July 31, 2014, at a special event held at American University in Washington, DC, Explore Mars, Inc. launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in support of its ExoLance project. ExoLance is an innovative privately-funded venture to search for life below the Martian surface.
“The search for life on another planet has been intriguing humanity for centuries,” commented Explore Mars Executive Director, Chris Carberry. “Through the ExoLance program, Explore Mars seeks to initiate a process that will determine once and for all whether there is life on Mars.”
In the first phase of ExoLance, lasting approximately 12 months, the penetrator delivery system will be developed and tested. In subsequent phases, Explore Mars will aggressively work on science payload options and advancing the delivery system to flight-ready status.
Aerojet Rocketdyne will provide the initial computer modeling for the penetrator impacts. It is anticipated that this will be completed within the next few months. Joe Cassady, Executive Director, Space for Aerojet Rocketdyne noted that, “We have a long history of supporting Mars exploration at Aerojet Rocketdyne and we are excited to be supporting the Explore Mars concept for ExoLance.” Also supporting ExoLance are Uwingu, The Planetary Society, Mars World, and the National Institute of Aerospace.
The Indiegogo campaign will run until the end of September, with a minimum goal of raising $250,000. However, the project also provides for secondary goals of over $1 million. Project updates will be announced periodically throughout the campaign.
According to Artemis Westenberg, President of Explore Mars, “the Explore Mars team is thrilled to initiate this project aimed at getting the answer to the most fundamental question we humans have: ‘are we alone in the universe?’ With Gilbert Levin (Viking life detection experiments) and Chris McKay (noted astrobiologist and planetary scientist) on the science side and Aerojet Rocketdyne on the engineering side, we believe that ExoLance will provide a method to query Mars about possible life very thoroughly.”
To support the ExoLance program and participate in the search for life on Mars, interested persons can visit the Indiegogo campaign website at http://indiegogo.com/projects/exolance.
Help Explore Mars determine if there is life on our neighboring planet. Let’s make history together.