It was once a tropical planet with oceans and seas but all that water disappeared. Professor Michio Kaku, author Physics of the Impossible
Terra-forming is perhaps the ultimate way to create a new Garden of Eden in outer space. And how would we do it? Take a look at Mars. Mars is a frozen desert. First we would raise the temperature. We know how to warm up planets. Professor Michio Kaku
It’s a God-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling no
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she’s hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
For she’s lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on
Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man, look at those cavemen go
It’s the freakiest show
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man, wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars … David Bowie, Life on Mars
Mars has become a kind of mythic arena on to which we have projected our Earth hopes and fears. Professor Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Cosmos: Blues for a Red Planet, PBS 1980
How marvellous it would be to glide over the surface of Mars, to fly over Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the solar system. ibid.
Viking’s first picture assignment was to photograph its own foot, in case Viking was to sink into Martian quicksand – we wanted to know about it before it disappeared. Back on Earth we waited breathlessly for the first images. Viking painted its picture of vertical strokes line by line until with enormous relief we saw the footpad firmly imprinted in the Martian soil. This was the first image ever returned from the surface of Mars. ibid.
The conditions on Mars four billion years ago were very similar to the conditions on Earth four billion years ago. But four billion years ago is when life arose on Earth. Could life have arisen on Mars at the same time? Professor Carl Sagan, interview Solar Empire: A Star is Born, Discovery 2001
A set of single and double straight lines that speak persuasively of intelligent origin. But the only question is, which side of the telescope was the intelligence on? And the answer is clearly it was on our side of the telescope. ibid.
For a start it’s cold. It’s fifty million miles further from the sun than the Earth. And so it receives half as much warmth. And the temperatures fluctuate wildly. From eight degrees to minus two hundred in a matter of minutes. If the cold doesn’t get you the low gravity will. Mars is just half the size of the Earth and has just 30% of its gravity. Stephen Hawking’s Universe: Into the Universe: The Story of Everything, Discovery 2010
They have yet to find life. I don’t think we should give up. Beneath the Martian surface NASA’s Spirit Rover discovered these salts. Which are formed in contact with liquid water. Surface satellite images reveal drainage patterns and erosion by the kinds caused by rivers and oceans. There may well still be moisture under Mars’ surface. Moisture that could perhaps support life. Stephen Hawking’s Universe: Into the Universe: Aliens: Are We Alone?
The biologists were more sceptical. But they’d already begun to design experiments to test the possibility that micro-organisms may have survived on Mars. One theory was that they were lying dormant and that a cocktail of nutrients would awake them into life. Horizon: The Red Planet, BBC 1976
After travelling across the solar system this ancient rock fell to earth as a meteorite. Inside, scientists found organic compounds, the building blocks of life. Through microscopes they saw strange shapes, fossil shadows of living creatures. Evidence for alien life. But there’s a catch. It was a terrible mistake. The date was 1961. And the shapes were soon shown to have an Earthly origin. Horizon: Aliens from Mars, BBC 1996
Three months ago evidence of life in a rock from space was announced again. This time has science got it right? ibid.
Bacteria flourish in other extreme environments too, miles underground and under crushing pressures on the ocean floor. ibid.
Life is not the only option; yet that is the interpretation NASA has chosen. ibid.
By the year 2020 the first astronauts could be blasting off for Mars. They will be embarking on an epic voyage. Horizon: Mars: Death of Glory, BBC 1997
Celestial mechanics will limit the crew’s options for how long to stay on Mars. Because it orbits the sun out of step with the Earth, Mars only comes within our range every eighteen months. So the crew will have to make a flying visit for a few weeks or the kind of long stay the Americans are planning. ibid.
It about to get very busy on Mars. Pathfinder which arrived there today is just the first of a dozen missions that will explore the red planet over the next decade. Horizon: Destination Mars, BBC 1997
Mariner 3 [is] the product of two years careful assembly and testing blasted off perfectly for Mars in November 1964. It was America’s first attempt to reach the Red Planet. ibid.
As Mariner 4 swept past Mars its black and white television camera snapped twenty-two close-up pictures of the planet. ibid.
In the last few months a probe orbiting Mars has sent back astonishing pictures which have rekindled the search for life. Billions of years ago did a river flow through this canyon? If these gullies were created by water, and if this was once a lake, then there is every chance we will one day find signs of life on Mars. Horizon: Life on Mars, BBC 2001
Mars seems an unlikely place to look for life. It’s far too cold for water. Temperatures can be minus 100 degrees. And there’s virtually no atmosphere ... But it seems that Mars was once far more hospitable. ibid.
The first view of the landing site sent back by the cameras on Pathfinder revealed a rock-strew plain just like the boulder-fields left by catastrophic floods on Earth. Here were the slanting boulders lined up by the floodwaters ... with their tell-tale chipped edges. ibid.
Pathfinder confirmed that the vast Martian channels had been carved by enormous floods. So what does this mean for the chances of finding life? Some of these flood seemed quite recent ... The floods on Mars were thousands of times bigger than anything on Earth today. Where did the water go? ibid.
Four years ago a team of American scientists claimed they had found evidence of microscopic life in a meteorite that had come from Mars. Alan Hills’ 84001 has become the most intensively studied rock in the world. Because proving that this rock contains life from Mars has turned out to be very difficult. ibid.
In 2001 a new NASA probe was launched. Called Odyssey it was sent to Mars to carry out the most detailed analysis ever of the planet’s surface. What it has discovered may be about to answer one of the great questions, and solve one of Astronomy’s biggest mysteries: Are we alone in the universe or is there life on Mars? Horizon: Life on Mars, BBC 2003
This is why Mars has so obsessed scientists: if life has arisen independently on the planet just next to us, then the chances must be that life will be everywhere. In which case we are not alone. ibid.
The idea of life on Mars was first popularised by an American astronomer called Percival Lowell in the 1890s. He claimed he could see evidence of a civilisation on Mars. The lines criss-crossing its surface he believed were not geological accidents but canals linking Martian cities. ibid.
In July 1965 reality intruded: Mariner 4 became the first probe to fly by Mars and photograph it. At last the world would see what the land of the little green men really looked like. ibid.
Mars may look dry but there are signs of water there. ibid.
They’ve discovered [on Earth] that bacteria can survive in the permafrost for far longer than anyone had thought possible. ibid.
Plants grown on Mars may be very different from those on Earth. The lower gravity on Mars – one third of that on Earth – means that plants and animals may grow taller and thinner. ibid.
On 7th April 2001 NASA launched Odyssey carrying [William] Boynton’s device. And this time everything went according to plan. Once in Mars’ orbit the instrument was deployed. And the gamma-ray detector could get to work. The data was radioed back from Odyssey to NASA to the University of Tucson and finally to Boynton’s desk. As the data came through, a picture started to build. It could only mean one thing: there is water-ice on Mars today. And there is masses of it ... But the question of life was actually remained unanswered. Mars: A Horizon Guide, BBC 2009
This is one of most sophisticated space vehicles ever built. Curiosity is a billion-dollar rover. In six days’ time it will attempt to touch down on Mars. Mission to Mars: A Horizon Special, BBC 2012
Could Mars ever have supported life? ibid.
Two-thirds of all missions have ended in disaster. ibid.
They want to know if Mars could have supported life at any point in its history. ibid.