What mystery does the red planet still hide from us?
Could there be life on mars? Do we secretly hope so? If there really is such a thing, I would imagine it to be primitive bacteria or moss type life. All the while our scientist endevour to look closer at the surface of the Red planet with growing expetation that they will find something within the permafrost.
Nations are coming together with shared fields of expertise and as one they push the frontiers of exploration. Mars seems to be the first point of call. There is a belief that many of her hidden secrets are accessable. The red planet is now a real goal for exploration and a strong hope of discovering alien life.
Look at this photograph taken by Mars Express - the European Space Administration (ESA)
Are we the only ones in this Universe? I don't thinks so, do you? There must be intelligent lifeforms somewhere in space. Even basic alien bacteria or plant life. Some evidence supports the notion of life-forms living on the planet right next door to us - Mars.
Space probes are searching Mars in the belief that ingredients for life, including water, are there. The Mars Odyssey probe, launched in April 2001, detected huge frozen areas of permafrost, simular to that found in the Antarctic on Earth. This surface ice may hide something below and scientists hope to learn more about Mars' mysterious water cycle.
Learn more of the Mars Odyssey probe on the NASA website.
The Curiosity Rover is a huge project of NASA. They have organised, developed and built an exploration vehicle to land on Mars and explore the South Pole area of the planet. This is to determine if there was once life on the Red Planet. It will take a great deal of time, but much has been put into this project.
A multitude of Scientists are working from Earth and feeding programmes into the Curiosity Rover so that it can conduct all manner of experiments. This is one of the most exciting leaps forward since the first Apollo Moon landing.
Other probes and land vehicles have landed upon the Martian surface before, but these have met with very limited success and none where the search for alien life is concerned. Now this new robotic laboratory can roam the Martian surface controlled by NASA personnel on Earth after a most successful landing on the Red Planet's surface.
Theories
Scientists and Theorists will not give up on the Martian question of life. Many cling to the notion that Mars might be a dead planet that once sustained life. Gradually ideas are eliminated only to be replaced by new ones. The hope of 'once there was life.' remains and so many explorations and experiments remain. Unmanned space craft are sent to scratch the surface and find evidence of 'once there was life.'
Questions
Some of the rock formations puzzle geologists and pose questions that once water might have been there. Why did it all end if the planet was once on the journey to evolve carbon based lifeforms. Perhaps a violent ecological disaster might be the reason for the sterile landscape that teases of 'once there was life.'
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