Biological Oxidant and Life Detection

Biological Oxidant and Life Detection
Mission typeMars impactor
OperatorWashington State University
Mission durationAt Mars: 10 Sols (≈11 Earth days)
Mars impactor

The Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) is a concept mission to Mars focused on searching for evidence or biosignatures of microscopic life on Mars.[1][2][3][4] The BOLD mission objective would be to quantify the amount of hydrogen peroxide (H
2O
2) existing in the Martian soil and to test for processes typically associated with life. Six landing packages are projected to impact 'softly' on Mars that include a limited power supply, a set of oxidant and life detection experiments, and a transmitter, which is able to transmit information via an existing Mars orbiter back to Earth. The mission was first proposed in 2012.[5]

  1. ^ "A Proposal for a New Mission to Mars: The Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) Mission". Laboratory for Astrobiological Investigations & Space Mission Planning. Washington State University. Archived from the original on 2012-04-22. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
  2. ^ Schulze-Makuch, Dirk; Houtkooperb, Joop M.; Knoblauchc, Michael; Furfarod, Roberto; Finke, Wolfgang; et al. (2007). Hoover, Richard B; Levin, Gilbert V; Rozanov, Alexei Y; Davies, Paul C. W (eds.). The Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) Mission: An outline for a new mission to Mars (PDF). Optical Engineering + Applications. Instruments, Methods, and Missions for Astrobiology X. Vol. 6694. Caltech. pp. 66940O. Bibcode:2007SPIE.6694E..0OS. doi:10.1117/12.732155. S2CID 36189299. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
  3. ^ Tudor Vieru (25 April 2012). "Scientists Want Astrobiology Mission to Mars". Softpedia. Retrieved 2012-07-19.
  4. ^ Schulze-Makuch, Dirk; et al. (June 9–11, 2015). The Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) mission: A proposal for a low-cost mission to Mars (PDF). 11th Low Cost Planetary Missions Conference.
  5. ^ The Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) Mission: A Proposal for a Mission to Mars. Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration (2012)