Canadian Space Agency funds ABB methane sensor for Mars missions

The Canadian Space Agency has awarded ABB Inc. a $1.5 million contract in Quebec City to advance MAGE-ICOS, an instrument designed to detect trace methane in Mars’s atmosphere.

The instrument’s formal name is Martian Atmospheric Gas Evolution Experiment – Inter-Cavity Optical Spectroscopy. ABB will work to lower measurement noise and raise sensitivity for MAGE-ICOS in Martian atmospheric conditions, then test a prototype to show how the instrument performs. The CSA’s Space Technology Development Program funded the contract to advance Canadian space companies’ innovation and competitiveness for new commercial opportunities, supporting national priorities by fostering technological advancement across the Canadian space sector. The work builds on earlier CSA-funded research and aims to position Canada’s instrument for possible inclusion on future international Mars missions.

Researchers study Martian methane because the gas could point to past habitability, current geological activity, or possible biological processes on the planet. Detecting the gas is central to understanding Mars‘s atmospheric evolution and to learning whether the planet ever hosted life, since geological and biological processes can both generate it. The Canadian Space Agency says researchers study the gas to understand how the planet has changed over time and what activity is happening there now.

Scientists have detected methane signals on Mars, but they still do not know where the gas comes from or what processes create it, leaving the gas’s origins unclear. The agency says measuring the gas more often close to the Martian surface could help scientists answer unresolved questions about its origins and production.

Scientists detect methane in the Martian atmosphere using spectroscopy, a technique that identifies gases by the specific wavelengths of light they absorb.