Sky and Telescope - November 2017 - 22

The Next Space Sprint

Where to Land?

Vago. "I think if there is life on Mars now, it would have to
be a couple of kilometers deep, and it would be a very expensive mission to drill to those depths."
If this is the case, then why not wait until society has
developed the technology to determine if there is or isn't
life on Mars once and for all? After all, part of the beauty
of the Red Planet is that it is a planet-sized time capsule.
"On Earth everything has been metamorphosed by burial
and plate tectonics," says Horgan. "On Mars many of the
rocks on the surface are in the exact place they were laid
down 4 billion years ago - they're sitting there waiting for
us to interpret them." Why rush?
Perhaps the reason comes less from the head and more
from the heart. We want to know if we are not alone in the
universe - and we want to know now. So hang waiting for
technological advances: To steal from Tennyson, it is better
to try and fail than never to try at all.

NASA (landing ellipse 18 km × 14 km)
1. Gusev - Mars rover Spirit found that mineral springs
once burbled up from the rocks of Columbia Hills, specifically uncovering evidence that past floods might have
formed a shallow lake inside this crater. "The minerals
that precipitate out of those hot waters can trap microbes and organics, and help preserve biosignatures,"
says Horgan. "So astrobiologists are really excited about
the chance to go back."

¢ BENJAMIN SKUSE is a science writer based in Bristol,
United Kingdom.

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Sky and Telescope - November 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - November 2017
