Scientists look to Hawaii in the search for life on Mars

Hawaii is the famous holiday destination but it is not confined to that only. Hawaii is famous amongst the scientists due to its similarities with other planets in terms of terrain.

As part of "NASA's Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains", acronym "BASALT Program", Scientists Allyson Brady and Greg Slater from McMaster University are currently working on the slopes of Kilauea Volcano with other international researchers in an attempt to find out the clues that will help future astronauts to search for present and past signs of life on the Planet Mars.

Hawaii is an exotic place with similarities to the terrain of Mars planet which makes it an obvious place for research purposes. Although "Jupiter's Moon Europa" and "Saturn's Moon Enceladus" contains traces of water, due to its immense distance from Earth, the researchers are currently aiming for Mars on which water traces were found.

About Mars - It is believed that large part of Mars was covered as Ocean about 4.3 billion years ago and there were streams and rivers in the northern hemisphere of the planet. Mars is also known as the Red planet due to its Iron rich soil. It is believed that if Life existed or still exists on Mars, in the present day, it will be present deep below the surface due to heavy radiation of the outer space that makes the life of Mars too complicated to withstand.

Basalt all over - The resemblance of Mars to the Kilauea Volcano is that the Basalt rock which forms over a period of billion years due to volcanic eruptions that have made Hawaii a place of great importance. Allyson Brady was quoted saying "We're making some assumptions, but you have to start somewhere". Scientists are searching for life trapped in Basalt rocks as Bacteria and not life created by Photosynthesis. The researchers have the challenge to find if the bacteria are abiotic or biotic in nature.

Simulating Mars has many challenges - Many Space research agencies around the globe are going hand-in-hand with the Hawaiian Mission which was initiated to stimulate Mars Mission that might become reality one day. Working in the Hawaiian Mission has some challenges associated with it. The teams that are posted for research uses aerial data which is similar to that they might be using from a satellite revolving around Mars. The space astronauts involved in the research searches for basalt rocks to examine the traces of life on Mars. The Hawaiian Mission is like a simulation before going for an actual Mars Mission that will train astronauts physically and mentally to withstand the high pressure of work.

The researchers and astronauts are connected to the Mission control team similar to the actual mission where they can communicate for the further procedure. To eradicate the waiting time consumed while establishing communication which comes on an average delay of 20 Minutes, the astronauts will be asked to do the certain task. Then the next challenge that awaits is to find out the types of basalt rocks if they are non-porous or porous.

CBC News also stated that Hawaiian Mission is not one of its kind mission, back in 2015, the similar mission took place in Idaho's Craters of the Moon National Park. The Christian Science Monitor also pointed towards another alike mission at Mauna Ulu, Hawaii, which is also undergoing BASALT Program.

As per NASA, there are no plans for the space agency to send humans on the radiation brimming Mars Planet, NASA is estimated to send its Orion Spacecraft by 2030s, however, no firm announcement has been made yet. Elon Musk, CEO ad founder of SpaceX gave nod to send Humans to Mars.

Brady said "There's a lot of good evidence that Mars was like Earth a long time ago,", "I think it would be surprising if some microbial life somewhere didn't exist in the Universe".

Speaking about Hawaii, learn more about Kilauea Volcano in The Insider's Guide to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park by Uldra Johnson on Amazon. Tag along Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook by Leona Boyd on Amazon.