Will NASA Ever Find Life on Mars? (Jeremy Hsu)

Created by : Francis Goodwin View profile

(Space.com) -- The discovery last week of water ice just under the surface of Mars has researchers buzzing, given that water is a key ingredient for life. The finding, by the Phoenix Mars Lander, is the most recent hint that the Red Planet might be habitable to microbes.

But in the parlance of treasure hunters in the movie "National Treasure," this looks a lot like just another clue that will lead to other clues, and still more clues. The big question still hangs over NASA: Is there life on Mars? And just as important: Can NASA ever find the evidence for it?

Getting to that answer will require the right mission with the right tools in the right places — not to mention some serious digging beyond the capabilities of Phoenix. The next Mars missions include NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, an SUV-sized rover set to launch in 2009, and the European ExoMars rover that would wield a drill capable of digging 6.5 feet (2 meters) down. It is set to launch in 2013.

NASA has long taken an incremental approach to searching for biology, with "follow the water" as a driving strategy. That means, perhaps to the frustration of some, that the current Phoenix lander mission and the twin rovers on Mars are not even designed to detect Martian life.

So current and near-future missions may not directly look for life, scientists say, but they will likely turn up more pieces to the puzzle of Mars and where extraterrestrial life may thrive.