I'm pretty sure the raison d'etre behind the Mars Missions is to look for
life or signs of biological activity. I know they're looking for water, but
why? Could it be because 70 to 90% of a living organism is water? Water is
the prime ingredient and habitat for life. Something like 80% of all Earth
fossils are marine. From the very beginning, they've been looking for signs
of life. The search for water is a subset of the main goal of looking for
life. Mariner 4 calculated that liquid water could not exist on Mar's
surface. The Viking orbiters were looking for signs of ancient water to
determine if life could have existed in the Martian past. Since they figured
out that multicellular life was a no go, the Viking probes went to Mars in
the 1970s to specifically look for single-celled organisms and organic
matter. The Phoenix lander of 2008 had two goals: look for life supporting
habitable zones and of course, to look for geologic signs of water. All the
future Mars missions on the drawing board have one purpose. To look for
signs of life! So far none of the evidence has met the criteria and
parameters for exo-biologic origin. Humans are a lonely herd. We just can't
believe that we're all alone. It's hard to accept that the closest, most
Earth-like planet we can imagine is a cold, desolate, lifeless place.
-----------------------------
Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have. (SW)
Phil Whitmer
----------------------------
Just wanted to note that neither of the current MERs were designed to look
for signs of life (well, short of bumping into a house or some such <grin>.
In fact the last machines sent to Mars to look for signs of life were the
Viking landers back in the 70s.
Happily that is soon to change with next year's planned launch of MSL. More
data here:
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl
Clear skies,
patrick
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