HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A Marshall Space Flight Center scientist is conducting an expedition to the South Pole to look for new forms of life.

One sign of success would be the smell of rotting eggs – a clear indicator of living organisms, Dr. Richard Hoover said.

“Hydrogen sulfide is the byproduct of living bacteria that gives off the aroma of rotting eggs,” said Hoover, 64.

Hoover and four other explorers hope to pierce the depths of Antarctica’s glaciers and ice sheets by sending probes to depths of more than 2 miles to gather thousands of specimens of fresh water.

The team plans to drop specially designed water collectors that will go through a layer of highly acidic water until they reach the deep fresh water where life may exist, Hoover said before leaving Huntsville earlier this week.

Known as “extremophiles,” the small, microscopic organisms may hold the key to the secret of life on other worlds, Hoover said.

Extremophiles are known to live deep underground, under frozen, acidic lakes and near hot volcanoes. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is interested in the research “because it may be what is encountered on other worlds or moons,” Hoover said. “Knowing as much as we can about these (organisms) on Earth will help find them elsewhere.”

Hoover hopes to discover new types of the organisms, “but this is also a scouting mission for a longer expedition planned for sometime later this year, or in early 2009,” he said.

It will take about a week to get to the South Pole, depending on the weather at the pole, Hoover said. Team members will gather in Cape Town, South Africa, over the next few days and hope to be at the pole by Feb. 5.

“That really all depends on the conditions. We may get there and not be able to leave for a bit,” Hoover said.

The team has a busy schedule with scouting trips to the frozen Schirmacher Oasis and a flyover of Lake Untersee, all in support of the later mission, Hoover said. “This has really grown from a simple planning expedition to a full-blown search for new life,” he said.

In addition to a base camp, the team will leave three snowmobiles behind for use later.

Living at the South Pole for even a short time is never easy, said Hoover, who went on a similar expedition in 2000.

Exposed skin can freeze in 30 seconds, and blinding winds can affect aircraft operations. “It’s the winds that really get you,” he said. “With winds that range up to 60 mph that can sap strength and body heat, then you really have to make safety a top priority. Definitely it will be for us.”

PH END SPIRES

(Shelby G. Spires is the aerospace writer for The Huntsville (Ala.) Times. He can be contacted at shelby.spires(at)htimes.com.)

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