Planet Mars: Searching for Life Continues

Any proof that there’s life on Mars is still non-existent. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) agency of the U.S. government has made a statement to that effect in answer to the sensational article in the British tabloid newspaper “The Sun”, saying that the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have allegedly found a biological substance similar to a bog.

It is really not very important whether purposefully or simply wrongly interpreting the NASA reports, the author of the publication in the daily tabloid newspaper “The Sun” deceived its readers. In any case, everybody, as before, is interested to know whether there is life on Mars. New arguments have appeared in the dispute over the presence of  primitive life on Mars.           

Scientists have proved that there’re bacteria on the Earth, which can live under extreme conditions, similar to the conditions existing on Planet Mars. This provides us sufficient grounds to reconsider the results of the experiments, which denied the existence of life on Mars.       

A Russian biologist, Yelena Vorobyova, says: "The conditions on Mars can be suitable for microorganisms, including their existence in anabiotic forms and on condition that there’re positive temperatures in close vicinity of thermal sources. Life has been discovered in the most exotic habitat areas on the Earth".

There’re large amounts of alkali in the samples of the Martian soil. And still, there’re arguments in favour of life on Mars. There’re unstable gases - such as methane and ammonia - in its atmosphere, which have a high degree of dissociation – thus, they could have become non-existent, had their reserves not been replenished all the time. There’re only two sources: either volcanoes which are simply non-existent on Mars or bacteria. There’s also water there, which is of great importance for the existence of life. True. Mars has no magnetic field, which would prevent fatal radiation, which, in its turn, would destroy all living organisms.

But there could be life under a thick layer of soil, where the probe of the future NASA mission will be launched, the deputy scientific head of the Fobos Soil project Alexander Zakharov.       

In 2011 an American landing apparatus MSL - Martian Scientific Laboratory - will be launched. Its main objective will be searching for life. It will be equipped with a Russian Neutron Spectrometer (NS), which can indirectly determine the existence of water, said Alexander Zakharov.

The Russian Fobos Soil mission, to carry the samples of soil from the Mars satellite to the Earth, will be launched later this year too. It may happen that the particles of substance from Mars will be found on the Fobos surface – thus, this expedition will carry them too.     

This apparatus will also have a container with Earth bacteria. It will visit Fobos and will return to the Earth in three years’ time. If microorganisms survive in outer space, it will be logical to assume that they can be easily carried away from one planet to another as part of cosmic powder and besides, on meteorites and asteroids. In other words, in this case there will be sufficient arguments to claim that there’s life within the Solar System and that the Earth with its biosphere is not unique.         

Therefore, scientists are looking forward to the Fobos Soil mission. The container apparatus will respond immediately to several fundamental biological questions and will help solve the Mars enigma more quickly.