Recently, military had developed a new tool that could help sniff out the solar system and specifically life on Mars or other places.

The Bio-Indicator Lidar Instrument (BILI) is an original instrument which probably won't fly to space anytime soon. Yet the developers assured that if it does, it could be utilized to detect methane or even oxygen in the atmosphere of an alien world and other biosignatures from the surface of the planets.

Fundamentally, the ability to hunt out indication of an alien world is one of BILI's properties.

Branimir Blagojevic, a NASA technologist who has worked with the company that produced the experiment said that it will be the first of a kind for an agency to build it, according to Mashable.

BILI was originally developed to snuffle out toxins and pathogens in the air. It would be attached to a Mars rover that depend on sniffing out elements in dust plumes which come from the planet.

NASA said the instrument has detector obtained two ultraviolet lasers to pulse light at the dust. Thus it caused the particles to become excited. The gathered data of the instruments could be analyzed by scientists such as the molecules in that state and check what the plumes are made of. It could also possibly detect chemical signs that would point to organics and life.

BILI has methods that would allow it to spot the presence of these possible organic molecules from hundreds of feet away. This could be beneficial in a tough Martian environment where it might be difficult to get to the exact spot and dimension needed of a close up to sample something.

Blagojevick said BILI's measurements can be quickly administered over a broad area. He added that BILI is a survey instrument, with a nose for certain molecules.

Another feature that characterized the instrument is the flexibility wherein it could be used on an orbiting spacecraft, which would detect biomarkers from above on either the interesting planet or moon.

On the other hand Trace Gas Orbiter of European Space Agency and Russia's ExoMars orbiter had just made its way to Mars. The orbiter hunted for possible signs of planet's atmosphere whether on the past or present life.

As early as 2020, an ExoMars mission will be sent to the Red Planet's surface to hovel beneath the surface and look for life, the two space agencies (European Space Agency and Russia's Exomars) revealed their plans.

Whereas, India's Mars orbiter is also searching for signs of methane from its place in orbit. Meanwhile, NASA planned that a rover would be sent to Mars in 2020. But this time, this instrument was not designated to search for potential life on the red planet, instead to determine if it could return to Earth for a possible mission in the future, revealed in the Nature World News.

As for the time being BILI isn't slated for a Mars mission, yet other spacecraft was already in orbit around the Red Planet and is slated to launch in the future. The spacecraft were also trying to hunt for biosignatures in Mars.

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