Alien life finally found this year?

Quebec aerospace engineer Farah Alibay hopes that soil samples collected on the planet Mars will provide proof of extraterrestrial life in 2022.

• Read also: [EN IMAGES] Ingenuity helicopter flew to Mars, NASA announces

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“If there was life on Mars, it is in 2022 that we will reach the place where we are most likely to find traces of it”, launches in videoconference Farah Alibay from his office of Los Angeles, United States.

The 33-year-old engineer, who has been part of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory exploration team since 2014, shows photos of “Rochette”, a pebble where the first soil samples were taken a few months ago . These pieces are not expected to reveal traces of life, but new samples could.

The Martian samples will need to be brought to Earth before scientists can determine if any signs of life are present. The targeted site, called Jezero, is a good candidate for harboring signs of life but it will take careful study by scientists around the world to establish whether these really are the case.

In the eyes of the expert, who grew up in Joliette before moving to the United States where she studied, the year 2022 will be decisive in answering one of the oldest questions of humanity: was there of life elsewhere than on Earth?

“This is one of the main objectives of the mission: to bring back traces of life from the planet Mars”, specifies the one who is in command of the Ingenuity helicopter, responsible for conducting reconnaissance flights around the robot.

Historical moment

On April 19, 2021, this 2 kg aircraft made history for having performed the first remote-controlled flight on another planet.

“The helicopter took off, rose 3 meters, rolled over and came down after 30 seconds. It was a historic moment that was greeted with cries of joy on Earth. ”

The helicopter made 18 flights in 2021. “We wanted to have one month of autonomy and we are already at nine months of activity. Solar panels work very well. ”

On the other hand, winds and radiation could hamper the movement of devices on a planet about which much is unknown.

In the hour of March

For several weeks in 2021, Farah Alibay lived on Mars time in order to follow the evolution of the mission in accordance with the rhythm of the red planet, where the days are longer.

“Winter is coming in the region we are exploring; we don’t know how the instruments will behave, ”she explains, recalling that the mercury can reach -73 degrees Celsius.

Born at the same time as Earth, Mars had oceans and waterways similar to ours until it dried up.

It is in an old lake that the American mission chose to moor (land on Mars) in February 2021. The Perseverance rover and its helicopter will travel to the delta where a river could have welcomed life forms dating back to more than three billion years ago. The first Martians could be simple clusters of fossilized cyanobacteria.

Seven samples have already been collected, but it will be necessary to wait until 2031 before a new mission brings them back to Earth.

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