mission
how would you recognise life on another planet?
We build ultraviolet instruments, with AI on board, that measure how matter responds to light through time.
hello@solpera.com.auWe are a full-stack astrobiology lab based in Hobart. We build the instruments, implement the experiments, and run the compute ourselves. The boundary of life on Earth is barely understood. We take an alternative method to approach this problem: ultraviolet reflectance of microbial mats and crusts. High-energy light perturbs matter, and the matter must respond. We hypothesise that response, through time, is what describes livingness.
A response through time has to be watched where it happens, and the places worth measuring are remote. So our instruments run the experiment and read the response themselves, on site. That is why we build AI into them.
We develop for the harshest environments on Earth, designing around the cold, dryness, radiation and isolation that challenge microbial mats and field instruments. That work prepares our methods for future lunar and Mars missions.
Nothing is alive, so what is livingness? Can we measure and characterise its fundamental features? Without assuming cells or metabolism, what common pattern, fundamental to life on Earth, might we also see on Mars and beyond?
The machines that run the experiments: Spectrophage in the laboratory, and Atlas, a sensor and compute backpack for legged robots in the field.
AI that lives on the instrument: it drafts each experiment with you, runs it, and reads the response as it arrives, so the next measurement is decided where the data is.
flight record
| date | from the programme |
|---|---|
| 2025 | UV induction pilot Exploratory ultraviolet exposure work with Nostoc commune. |
| May 2026 | Jornada samples Dark crust samples prepared for spectral measurements. |
| June 2026 | Spectrophage at OSU The ultraviolet reflectance prototype in the laboratory. |
| August 2026 | Alpine Tasmania Field observations of microbial mats. |
the engineering pays for the research
Work with us on an instrument, private AI system or field project. If you are interested in the longer research programme, there are also opportunities to discuss investment and partnership.