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Microbes on Mars? NASA Wants to Know

NASA revealed its plan for the next rover mission - and talks about a manned mission to the Red Planet, too.

By Brandie Jefferson

Is there life on Mars?

Who knows?  

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But if things go as planned, there will be life on the Red Planet come 2030 (in addition, of course, to those pesky Mars lizards).

The NASA team in charge of the 2020 rover mission to Mars rolled out its plan Tuesday outlining the mission’s goal which is, simply put, to look for evidence of past life on the neighboring planet.

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But nothing is simple about sending a delicate, car-sized, moving, interacting, communicating piece of technology 38 million miles through space, landing it on the surface of a rocky, windy planet and expecting it to collect, analyze and transmit information about rocks and soil on the surface and potentially return them to Earth.

And it's not cheap; the report estimates a minimum cost of $100 million.  

But, it has been done before.

In fact, the 2020 rover design itself will be based on the Curiosity rover, which touched down (quite spectacularly) on the Martian surface last year.

Those past missions will inform the 2020 mission in other ways, too. “The Spirit and Opportunity rovers, along with several orbiters, found evidence Mars has a watery history,” according to the statement. And Curiosity has found evidence that Mars could have supported microbes in the past.

Despite that history, NASA officials say they are headed into the next rover mission with an open mind.

“The Mars 2020 mission concept does not presume that life ever existed on Mars," Jack Mustard, chairman of the Science Definition Team, said in the statement.

Then again, he adds, “Given the recent Curiosity findings, past Martian life seems possible, and we should begin the difficult endeavor of seeking the signs of life. No matter what we learn, we would make significant progress in understanding the circumstances of early life existing on Earth and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life."

In addition to looking for signs that Mars once had life, the 2020 rover mission will also demonstrate some proofs of concept for a manned mission to the planet. It will be able to seek out new ... resources for manned missions, or highlight hazards that people on Mars would need to plan for; the design of the craft can inform designs of future crafts that may carry humans to space.

The 2020 rover mission concept, according to the statement, could be “a major step in meeting President Obama’s challenge to send humans to Mars in the 2030s.”

Less than 20 years from now.

I wouldn’t hold your breath, but do cross your fingers and encourage the kids to study math and science and geology and chemistry and all of the fields that play a role in space exploration and the search for life out there.

And in 2030 maybe the answer to “is there life outside of planet Earth” will be yes. And maybe it will be us.

Do you think there's life on Mars? Do you think the answer is worth another $100 million mission?


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