Exploring Mars Does the fact the Curiosity rover found organic material on Mars prove life is possible on other planets or even existed on Mars previously? While I don’t believe this proves life does exist on other worlds, it seems to me this increases the chance for finding it. I am not talking about bacteria or microbes of any kind because it seems we know the answer already. The algae we found on the space station was said to come not from the earth, but from somewhere else. I am talking about animal life and even intelligent life. We might also find the answers to evolution on some alien world. We have been trying to piece it together for almost a couple of hundred years. On top of finding organic material on Mars we found methane. We actually found it a while back and it was an important find. What makes it so important is the fact it could indicate life. Life as we know it gives off methane. Methane is one of the most important markers to search for and while it doesn’t mean life is present, it certainly could. It could turn out the life we find because of Methane could be just plants, but we have to remember one important thing. We have no idea what intelligent alien life would look like. It is possible an intelligent being could be plant based. I sometimes wonder what we may have found on Mars already which is a secret. I would love for the Cydonia region of Mars to be explored as I am sure many of us who realize there could be ancient structures there are also interested in that region. NASA knows this but seems to be giving Cydonia a wide birth, why is this? There could be a reason for this. They have already explored it and know there was once intelligent life there and feel we can’t handle the truth. NASA would probably say there is either nothing of interest there or it is too hard to land there. Of all the structures which are said to be there, two bring the most attraction. The first is the giant face which looks like it is wearing an Egyptian head piece and the second is the pyramid. Is it just a coincidence two structures which seem to be totally Egyptian are located in Cydonia? Wouldn’t you think this would pique the interest of NASA? The caves on Mars have been said to be a source of the methane. What could this mean? There might be animals living in them or at the very least plant life. One important fact to note is oxygen has been found forming over a crater on Mars. This could be a clue. Perhaps the caves have oxygen in them and life on Mars lives underground. I am thinking more about animals and plants, but maybe, just maybe, there is intelligent life there. The caves are another area which should be explored because of the methane presence and yet, we hear nothing about this. The organic material which was found was from a crater which a meteor had formed. This does bring a question to mind and that question is could the organic material have come from the meteor and is not natural to the red planet? There are always these things to consider. NASA scientists think organic molecules were present on Mars for billions of years, or so they say. They go on to say the results from their experiments are the most conclusive yet. One scientist said the reason it is hard to find organic compounds on Mars is the surface is constantly exposed to radiation and the chemicals on Mars, and this breaks down organic material. In other words, we have to dig to find these compounds because they would have been wiped out on the surface and dig is just what the Curiosity rover did and then it heated the soil and the compounds were released in the form of gas. As far as the methane goes, scientists have found the amount in the atmosphere varies with the seasons. They seem to indicate they don’t know exactly where it is being released from. Some believe the combination of organic material and methane indicate there was life on Mars in the past. NASA scientists want to know more about the geology of Mars so they sent the InSight lander to detect actions like Mars quakes and indeed the lander did detect some. This must have been a surprise to some, since many thought Mars was a dead world. Every time we go to Mars it seems we send more and more equipment on the flight. This time as you all know we have a lander, rover and helicopter. As we improve our abilities to do flyovers, we will run out of excuses not to at least fly over Cydonia. One of the biggest problems for our equipment on Mars is much of it uses solar panels for power. Ordinarily, this would not be a problem but Mars is a very dusty place and has frequent dust devils swirling around and all this activity deposits dust and dirt on the panels making them much less efficient. One would have thought some system would have been installed to clear the panels occasionally. Even a simple fan might be able to do the trick, but I guess it would take too much power to operate. NASA is always giving prizes for innovation so why not run a contest to see who can come up with a method for clearing the solar panels? Now that we are starting to get competition, landing on Mars is no longer a one man show with the United States being that man. In a way it seems like such a waste for two or more countries eventually doing the same experiments. If countries could get along better, we could share our data and perhaps share the cost, making our trips to Mars and other planets and moons much more efficient. Some people think the Chinese might release photos of things we have been keeping secret. They now have their own rover on Mars named the Zhurong rover. Their rover is also solar powered and contains six scientific instruments. Those instruments are a multispectral camera and two navigation cameras, wind and sound detectors, temperature and pressure sensors, a magnetometer, a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer, and a ground-penetrating radar. The ground-penetrating radar can radio its findings back to earth. The NASA Perseverance rover contains seven scientific instruments. They are, Panoramic Cameras, Laser micro imager, weather station, Ultraviolet Spectrometer, X-Ray Spectrometer, an oxygen maker, subsurface Radar. It also carries a helicopter.
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