The sensitive method the US military is currently using to remotely monitor the air to detect potentially life-threatening chemicals, toxins, and pathogens has led to the development of a new tool that can sniff out if there is life on Mars, and other planets in the solar system - the Bio-Indicator Lidar Instrument, or BILI.
The BILI instrument is a fluorescent lidar, a remote chemical analysis instrument similar in principle to radar. However, instead of using radio waves as is the case with radar, lidars use light to detect and chemically analyze particles in the atmosphere.
Located on the rover mast, the BILI instrument will first scan the surrounding area for dust streams. Finding one, the instrument will direct pulses of light with its ultraviolet lasers at the dust. These pulses will cause the particles in these dusty clouds to reflect light, or fluoresce. By analyzing this secondary radiation, scientists will be able to determine if the dust contains particles of organic matter formed relatively recently or in the distant past. In addition, this tool will allow you to estimate the size of dust particles.
The main advantage of this instrument is that it is capable of analyzing from a distance of several hundred meters. This will allow the exploration of mysterious "reccuring slope lineae" (RSL) - formations associated with hydrated salts and difficult to explore with rovers because they are located on too steep slopes.