Why Mars? To Find The Elusive Methane And Secrets Of Life

MUMBAI: In recent years, a rising number of countries are eyeing the Red Planet, both with the idea of establishing a permanent human settlement there, as well as carrying out unmanned scientific research.

So far, just three countries or groupings have launched unmanned missions to Mars: the US, the former Soviet Union and the 17-member European Space Agency. India has thus joined an exclusive global Martian club as the fourth member, in the first shot, and become the first Asian nation.

Japan's attempt to reach Mars with the Nozomi spacecraft in 1998 suffered a setback, and China's maiden effort with Yinghuo-1 in November 2011 didn't succeed because of a failure of the Russian rocket. UAE is planning an unmanned mission to Mars in 2021.

The main reason why countries are aiming for Mars is to hunt for the elusive Methane and determine if life ever existed on that planet since it is most earth-like.

Nasa's Curiosity mission, which landed on the Red Planet on August 6, 2012, established that conditions there were once suitable for life. But, it also declared that there was no methane, a theory dismissed by former Isro chief U R Rao, who played a key role in the selection of the five payloads for the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). Among five scientific equipment MOM carries is a Lyman alpha photometer to look for deuterium and hydrogen--indicators of water in the past.

Nasa's Curiosity rover had declared that there was no methane on the Red Planet.

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Some scientists have even been speculating that life began on Mars. They believe several billion years ago a rock with life in it could have struck the Red Planet, bounced back into space, and landed on earth. Another factor prompting countries to go to Mars is to know why it transformed from a warm, wet planet into a cold and dry one.

Countries are hunting for the elusive Methane on Mars to determine whether life ever existed on the planet.

Scientists also want to understand the Martian climate, its atmosphere and dust storms. A study of its minerals is also a part of the scientists' agenda. Space agencies also want to develop a detailed model of Mars relating to the physical and chemical processes taking place there.

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V Adimurty , who headed the Indian Mars Mission Study Team, told TOI in an earlier interview that scientists are curious to know about Mars “because it holds the secrets of our past and the possibilities of our future“.

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step on the moon, in his book 'Mission To Mars' wrote that understanding the Martian climate and atmosphere, including the evolution of Mars' surface and interior, can be “looped back into grasping the past, present and future of earth“.