Universe Today
Not-for-profit group Explore Mars has a new IndieGoGo campaign that could see an instrument,
ExoLance
, head to the Red Planet to burrow for subsurface life. The first stage will be to raise money to build the prototype and then test it, within 12-14 months of finishing the fundraising.
No launch date for this mission has been announced, but the group says that will be determined after testing is finished and a launch provider can be found.
"Explore Mars has devised a simple system capable of being delivered to the Martian surface to detect microorganisms living on or under the surface," the campaign page states.
"ExoLance leverages a delivery system that was originally designed for military purposes. As each small, lightweight penetrator probe ("arrow") impacts the surface, it leaves behind a radio transmitter at the surface to communicate with an orbiter, and then kinetically burrows to emplace a life-detection experiment one to two meters below the surface. ExoLance combines the experiments of the 1970s Viking landers and the Curiosity rover with bunker-busting weapons technology."
The project aims to raise $250,000, but there will be milestone goals available all the way up to $1 million.