Researchers at NASA have been hard at work on a pilot AI system intended to help future exploration missions find evidence of life on other planets in our solar system. Machine learning algorithms will help exploration devices analyze soil samples on Mars and return the most relevant data to NASA. The pilot program is currently slated for a test run during the ExoMars mission that will see its launch in mid-2022. As IEEE Spectrum reports, the decision to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to aid the search for life on other planets was driven largely by Erice Lyness, the head of the Goddard Planetary Environments Lab at NASA. Lyness needed to come up with ways of automating aspects of geochemical analyses of samples taken in other parts of our solar system.

Humans have a '50/50' chance of finding life on the red planet within three years, according to an astrobiologist working on the next Mars rover. The ExoMars rover is scheduled to land on the red planet in August 2021 and will be part of a mission to investigate how the planet evolved and whether it has conditions for life. Scientists working on the project believe plans to excavate below the surface of the red planet greatly increase their chance of finding life. Humans have a '50/50' chance of finding life on the red planet within three years, according to an astrobiologist working on the next Mars rover (artist's impression) Due to launch in 2020, the ExoMars rover will be the first of its kind to travel across the martian surface and drill-down to determine if evidence of life is buried underground. Dr Susanne Schwenzer, the astrobiologist on the ExoMars rover told the Daily Telegraph that the'chances are just about 50/50'.

Astronaut Tim Peake has launched a competition to name the British-made Mars rover set to search for life on the red planet -- and'Rover McRoverface' is already in the running. The rover is scheduled to land on the red planet in August 2021 and will be part of a mission to investigate how Mars evolved and whether it has conditions for life. People with suggestions can submit them on a designated website set-up by the European Space Agency (ESA). However, it is not a popularity poll, with an expert panel scheduled to make the final decision. As a result, 'Rover McRoverface' is unlikely to be the winning entry.

The European Space Agency (ESA) finally has a better idea of what caused its ill-fated Mars lander to crash-land on the Red Planet in October. It looks like the Schiaparelli lander -- part of the joint alien life-hunting ExoMars mission between the ESA and Russia -- crashed into the surface of Mars due to a glitch in its navigation system. The ins and outs of the issue that doomed that lander are complicated, but basically, as Schiaparelli was coming in for touchdown its navigation computer miscalculated its altitude, leading the onboard computer to think that the lander was already safe and on the ground. SEE ALSO: Wednesday's Mars landing could put Europe on the Martian map That miscalculation triggered the jettisoning of the lander's parachute and backshell plus the brief firing of its "braking thrusters." The lander was still about 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) above Mars when this happened.

Mission controllers appear to have lost contact with a tiny craft that was Europe's big hope for Mars exploration. The paddling pool-sized "Schiaparelli" lander appeared to have made its way safely through the harsh atmosphere of Mars and onto its surface. But something appears to have gone wrong while it did so – and mission controllers are now unable to speak with it. The lander sent communications to its mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter, on its way down. But the signal was lost before touchdown.

The Schiaparelli robot probe has not sent back a message it was expected to from the surface of Mars. The problem could mean that the lander has been lost. If so, it would bring a tragic end to humanity's newest hopes of finding alien life on the planet. But the European Space Agency warned against writing off the chances of finding the lander. There was still a decent chance that the lander might be heard from.

Tim Peake is set to control a robot rover while orbiting the Earth from space in a pioneering experiment at midday BST (7am ET) today. The British astronaut will remotely navigate the explorer through a simulated Martian landscape from the International Space Station today. The experiment, part of the ExoMars project, will take place in a hangar at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage. The British astronaut (pictured) will remotely navigate the'Bridget' explorer through a simulated Martian landscape from the International Space Station today. Major Peake tweeted yesterday: 'Looking forward to giving rover Bridget in Stevenage, UK, a test-drive from space.' Building on previous test and experiment campaigns, the European Space Agency, UK Space Agency and Airbus Defence and Space UK are working together to investigate distributed control of robots in a simulated planetary environment.

The successful launch of Europe's first ExoMars mission earlier this month set the stage for a much more ambitious second act: arover landing on the Red Planet. But the timing on that mission may not be so certain. On March 14, the European Space Agency (ESA) and its Russian partners launched the ExoMars 2016 mission, an orbiter and lander that serve as a precursor to a full-blown rover slated to launch as early as May 2018. But funding issues and technical delays could push that ambitious follow-up mission to 2020. Rolf de Groot, ESA's coordinator of robotic exploration, told Space.com that it's going to be "very challenging"to have the mission fully prepared for its 2018 launch window but that program managers will know soon whether they'll have to start seriously thinking about a 2020 launch instead.