The point is to know where to look. A group of NASA scientists is training a new AI that it could have 88% more chance than us of finding life on Mars. The goal of this technology is to help space rovers—such as Curiosity and Perseverance— to analyze faster and better the territory of the red planet. In this way, it would be possible to more accurately identify those places that harbor conditions for life to exist.
Researchers at the NASA Astrobiology Institute, led by Kimberley Warren-Rhodes, combined ecological statistics with machine learning techniques to create this AI. In this way, they gave it the ability to map “biosignatures”: any feature that provides evidence of past or present life.
To put it to the test, they went to the closest place to Mars that we know of: the Atacama desert, north of Chile. The equipment was installed in the Salar de Pajones region, the scientific journal detailed in a report Nature. First they took aerial photographs with drones, carried out geochemical analyzes and even studies of DNA sequences. With all this, they built a large library of data that “taught” the AI system about life in wilderness. The next thing was, precisely, to look for life.
AI optimizes the few resources that exist to search for life on Mars
The Chilean desert is one of the driest places in the world. For this and other characteristics, the scientific community says that its soil is very similar to that of Mars. The team asked the AI to help them identify places in the Atacama Desert where life was most likely to be found. The results are impressive.
the researchers were able to narrow their search area by up to 97%. In this way, they increased their probability of find life up to 88%. This, in comparison with the usual technique of “random scanning”.
“In the end, we could sit down and instead of wandering around for a long time, in a minute we could find life,” Warren-Rhodes said. A new rover with this AI could, in theory, use fewer resources and would have almost twice the chance of finding life on Mars than the vehicles that are currently exploring the planet.
The rover that is already looking for “Martians”
Today there are only three rovers exploring the surface of Mars. Of three, only Perseverance has the specific mission of searching for extraterrestrial life. The vehicle landed in 2020 and is equipped with seven of the most advanced scientific tools. However, it continues to search for “biosignatures” randomly.
Another of them, the curiosity, made headlines this week by revealing a never-before-seen postcard of a brilliant Martian sunset. This rover has already been in place for more than 10 years. His goal is to explain why the red planet went from being hot and humid to becoming the frozen desert it is today.
Researchers at the NASA Astrobiology Institute said they will continue to refine their AI algorithm, with the intention of being able to send better tools for the search for life on Mars. His discovery, so far, already represents a great advance in itself.