Laboratory products selected to go into space

Being chosen to go into space is a great honour for humans; but the privilege has also been extended to five laboratory products selected for an upcoming mission to Mars.

NASA and the European Space Agency are collaborating on the mission, which follows up on 2003's discovery of methane in the atmosphere of the fourth planet from the Sun.

Scheduled for 2016, the new investigation aims to learn more about the methane present there, as well as the general make-up of the Martian atmosphere - particularly as the 2003 findings suggest the planet may support life.

The laboratory products chosen include two infrared spectrometers able to detect elements at trace levels, along with an infrared radiometer to detect chemicals, dust and potentially water vapour in the Martian atmosphere.

A stereo imaging camera and wide-angled multi-spectral camera promise to return visual information from the planet's surface.

However, the following decade could return something more valuable from Mars, with plans for a joint mission to carry a sample from the planet to its neighbour - Earth.