Mars is not a good place to start our space colonization?

Human population is constantly growing which will in business as usual scenario lead to overpopulation of our planet and need to search for new habitable planets and new Super Earths. If we were to judge by many of Sci-fi movies and literature Mars would be the perfect candidate to start the human space colonization but sadly the reality suggests something completely different.

Several recent studies showed that Mars has an abundance of ice which has led to a theory that the Martian soil may have what it takes to support life, namely the liquid water. In order to make conclusion whether Mars is habitable or not the scientists have spent three years analyzing data on Martian soil and the final result was not positive.

The scientists have concluded that Red Planet is too hostile for any life to survive on the planet's surface because of the super-drought that has kept Mars in arid state for more than 600 million years.

There is also a very interesting theory that Mars may have had a warmer and wetter period in its earlier history more than three billion years ago. The researchers have confirmed this and have discovered that the Mars has been exposed to liquid water for at most 5,000 years since its formation billions of years ago.

The soil on Mars is uniform across the entire planet as was shown by satellite imagery and previous studies which draws the conclusion that the liquid water has been on the surface of Mars for far too short a time for life to develop on its surface.

Some believe that the proof of previous life on Mars can still be found underground the surface and it is expected that future NASA studies will focus on Mars’ underground in search for evidence of previous life on Red Planet.

The extreme aridity of Mars makes future colonization of Red Planet impossible, at least when judging by today's standards. So far Mars definitely doesn't seem to be having any similarities with the new Super Earth. Nonetheless, the quest for life on other planets is still on.