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Space engineers are to launch a probe designed to discover life on Mars.

The ExoMars robot spacecraft, nicknamed the 'giant nose', will use a detector to determine whether methane exists in significant levels high in the atmosphere.

Manish Patel, senior lecturer in planetary science at the Open University, said "You can't smell gas in space, so you need to send a sophisticated nose."

Patel, who designed some of the gas detectors on the robot, said smells are detected by observing changes in sunlight penetrating the atmosphere of Mars.

This clip is originally from 5 live breakfast on Tuesday 23 February 2016.