So I have a second sensor which is exactly the same technology, but designed to detect methane instead.

First came the news that New Yorkers are snatching up canaries in record numbers to provide early warning of a poison gas attack, much as coal miners used them to detect methane.

An instrument aboard the science laboratory would be able to detect methane at levels of 100 parts per trillion.

When the device detects methane, it should shut off the machine and halt the mining.

In early 2004 the Mars Express Planetary Fourier Spectrometer team announced the orbiter had detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.

But those are supposed to detect methane within the house, Mr. Clark said, while his system is designed to detect and kill termites before they even get to the house.

In a separate study, a team of Netherland scientists associated with MIT reported methods of detecting hydrogen and methane in extraterrestrial atmospheres.

A press release announces that the orbiter has detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.

In March, for example, European scientists announced that one of their planetary probes had detected methane in the atmosphere of Mars - a possible sign that alien microbes live beneath the planet's surface.

Other scientists have recently reported methods of detecting hydrogen and methane in extraterrestrial atmospheres.