ABB Gets $1.5M to Develop Mars Methane Sensor
The Canadian Space Agency has awarded ABB Inc. a contract worth about $1.5 million to advance its MAGE-ICOS instrument for detecting methane on Mars.
Updated on Nov. 9, 2026 in Space
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The Canadian Space Agency awarded ABB Inc. a contract worth about $1.5 million to further develop the MAGE-ICOS instrument, which is designed to detect trace amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere. ABB will refine and test the technology and then build and test a prototype to demonstrate its performance.
Why it matters
Signals suggesting methane is present on Mars have been detected, but the source of the gas is not fully understood. Methane on Mars could offer clues about the planet's past and present, including whether it may once have supported life.
MAGE-ICOS identifies gases by how they absorb light, using optical spectroscopy, and bounces laser light between mirrors so it passes through the gas many times. The instrument's performance will be assessed as ABB reduces measurement noise in its prototype, though no detection threshold has been reported.
The players
Canadian Space Agency
The federal agency that awarded the contract and funds Canadian space technology development through its Space Technology Development Program.
ABB Inc.
The Quebec City-based subsidiary of the Swiss-Swedish industrial technology group ABB Ltd, which builds methane sensors and analyzers.
GHGSat
A Montreal-based company that operates satellites monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, for which ABB already builds methane sensors.
The details
ABB Inc. of Quebec City will refine the MAGE-ICOS technology and reduce measurement noise before building a prototype. The company already builds methane sensors for GHGSat's satellites and uses the same optical technique in methane analyzers it sells on Earth.
Timeline
October: ABB received nearly $1 million from the Space Technology Development Program for an imaging payload.
Last December: ABB was selected to develop an infrared spectrometer for the Lunar Utility Rover.
The Big Picture
The contract extends the optical methane-sensing approach ABB already applies to Earth-monitoring satellites from GHGSat to a planetary setting. It positions Canadian firms to contribute instruments to future international missions to Mars.
The instrument could contribute to future international missions to Mars, which may eventually return data on the planet's atmospheric methane. Any resulting insights would depend on how the technology performs once tested and whether it flies on a mission.
The takeaway
Methane detection on Mars remains an open question, and tools built for Earth-based gas monitoring are now being adapted to test it. Readers following Canadian space work can watch whether ABB's prototype demonstrates the sensitivity needed for planetary use.
Further reading
Explore more on Space coverage of planetary missions and instrument development.
Source note: This article includes information reported by SpaceQ.
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