Let there be life

 

 

Do you often gaze into space and wonder if there just may be another planet out there – similar to earth – home to millions of life forms? If you don’t, then you must constitute only a tiny minority.

Way back, NASA researchers looked for signs of life in outer space by sending radio signals into the void and listened on for a response. So far, these messages have turned up nothing but silence. The latest trick up NASA’s sleeve is Zoë, a one metre tall and two metre wide robot that rushes around at 1.2 metres per second carrying an array of solar cells on its back to collect energy from the sun. All scientists have to do, is to programme Zoë – telling it what to do. Zoë will then explore the landscape and send data back home (Earth, that is). Now, that’s sound reconnaissance!