After 50 Years Of Missions, We’re Finally Ready To Know: Is There Life On Mars?

After 50 Years Of Missions, We’re Finally Ready To Know: Is There Life On Mars?

“Meanwhile, landers, orbiters and rovers continued, becoming more advanced and discovering evidence for liquid water. Most excitingly, methane vents and flowing surface features point towards past — and possibly present — microbial life.”

In the early 1960s, humanity began launching spacecraft to Mars, hoping to find out what the red planet was truly like. While early images revealed a heavily cratered surface, similar to that of the Moon, that turned out to be reflective of only a portion of the surface. Mars contains dust storms, basins, extinct volcanoes and the largest chasm of any planet in the Solar System. Since landing on Mars, we’ve now discovered intricate surface features, including evidence for frozen water, atmospheric water vapor, and even flowing, briny surface water in places. Where there’s water and the right organic ingredients, there should be life, right? After half a century of inconclusive results, ESA’s ExoMars Rover and NASA’s Mars 2020 may finally have the right stuff to find out for sure!

The evidence is circumstantial but suggestive, and after a generation of not knowing, the long-awaited answer may finally be at hand.